Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. All participants in sexual activity are over the age of eighteen. This is the first in a five-part series which was originally published in 2022.
The version below was edited in March 2025 to correct some minor errors and issues. I hope you enjoy it!
***
MY SWEET SANDY, CHAPTER ONE
by Eosphorus
It's funny how you can meet the most important person in your life when you least expect it. Then again, it's often that person you never saw coming who changes everything.
For me, it was a July afternoon a few months after I turned twenty.
Sandy's farm was at the end of a long dirt driveway off a winding rural road. Only a few minutes from the highway but felt like the middle of nowhere. I turned left at an old mill that'd been a series of failed restaurants over the years.
I pulled in and parked, questioning why I was there. I needed a job for the summer, sure. Money. This wasn't what I'd had in mind, though.
At the center of the property stood a beautiful old house with a wraparound porch and a pair of gables. I admired it as I got out of my car. It was nice but could've used a coat of paint.
I knocked on the front door, but no answer came. Second thoughts flooded in. What was the point of any of this? Did I want to spend the summer working in the middle of nowhere for some old lady?
Maybe I should go. Split while I still can.
Instead I walked around back. It was so quiet I could hear my footsteps on the dusty ground.
I glanced around, looking for signs of life. There were two barns, a large one next to the house and a smaller one at the end of an enclosure set up with jumps for horseback riding. To my right was a wide field where a group of horses grazed.
A pickup was parked nearby next to a van with the words "Sandy Greenhouse Woodworking Designs" painted in bright letters along with a pink and purple logo of a saw crossed with a hammer inside the outlined shape of a butterfly. I imagined what the sort of woman who lived alone on a farm and did carpentry must be like.
"Hello?" I called. "Anyone there?"
A woman emerged from the big barn. "I'm so sorry. I was in the shop and didn't hear you."
I hid my surprise, or so I hoped, and took in as much of her as I dared without gawking, getting a series of impressions rather than a complete picture all at once. Early forties. Full, expressive lips. Fair skin. A delightful scattering of freckles sprinkled across her face. Blonde hair in a ponytail. Amber eyes.
This couldn't be Mrs. Greenhouse. Her daughter, maybe?
She stepped forward smiling. Her smile! It was her superpower, warm and dazzling with the ability to turn me to jelly. "You must be James. I'm Sandy Greenhouse."
Everyone called me Jimmy but I didn't correct her. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Greenhouse."
"Call me Sandy." She looked me over. "Well, Mrs. Driscoll said you were a strong young man. She wasn't wrong, I see."
I'm sure I blushed. I'd shot up two inches in the past year to six feet and was long, lean and self-conscious. Sandy, on the other hand, was neither long nor lean. She was short and curvy with large breasts. She wasn't fat, just soft in all the right spots. An earlier era might've described her as buxom. My type all the way.
There was no hiding her figure, either. Her hot pink T-shirt and dark blue jeans weren't fancy but they highlighted her curves well.
Sandy led me into the barn. Inside was a brightly-lit, climate-controlled workshop. The cool air was in stark contrast to the July heat outside.
There were double doors facing the back of the property, furniture in various states of assembly, and a variety of woodworking benches and saws. Cabinets were along the walls and I noticed a fridge, a microwave, and a sink. An old Garth Brooks song playing on the radio. The scent of sawdust and varnish.
An enormous rottweiler who'd been curled up in the corner stood, growling. I took a long step backwards.
"
Freund,
" Sandy told the dog. "
Freund. Untun junge.
"
The dog lay back down.
Sandy turned to me. "That's GΓΌnther. I'm going to tell him to make friends. Don't worry, he's well trained. He'll only attack if I say the command."
She glanced at the dog and spoke more words in German. GΓΌnther got up and walked over.
"Let him smell your hand," Sandy said. "Go ahead. Pet him."
I did so. Gingerly.
Sandy gave him more commands in German and he went back to his bed. "He's a sweet boy."
"He doesn't look like one."
"That's the point."
Sandy explained her business. She took reclaimed wood and made it into furniture. She also incorporated salvaged hardware into her designs. Brackets from a 19th Century mill might be joined with wood from an old barn to make a coffee table.
I stared at a pair of end tables by the big door. "Your work's amazing."
"Thanks. I'm proud of it."
"My mom said part of the job is delivering your pieces."
"Yeah. These end tables need to go down to Cape May. That barn door's overdue for Montclair."
"I can do that," I said.
"That's only part of the job. Come on."
We went back outside and I took the opportunity to check out her ass more thoroughly than I'd had a chance to before. It was round and womanly and suitably soft-looking.
"I need help around the property, too," she said. "My husband died three years ago and there's a lot that needs attention."
"What do you need done?"
"Nothing too complex. The house needs paint. The fence around the paddock is sagging. The landscaping needs trimming. Can you do that?"
"I can learn what I need to."
She gave me a skeptical look.
Close the deal.
"There's a million how-to videos online. And I already know how to paint and trim landscaping. I can do whatever you need."
She studied me carefully. "Alright. Let's give it a shot. When can you start?"
"As soon as you need me."
"Tomorrow it is. You can begin with the delivery to Cape May. Nine sharp. I'll provide lunch since you're working at my home. I'm a helluva cook."
"So am I."
"That's right." I noticed a playful sparkle in her eye. "Mrs. Driscoll said you were in culinary school. Maybe I ought to have
you
make the lunches."
"I can also do that."
***
Working for Sandy hadn't been part of my plans.
First, I'd lost my original summer job when the trattoria I worked at closed abruptly due to the owner's gambling debts. Then my girlfriend broke up with me. Denise and I went to different schools and she didn't want to keep doing the long distance thing.