This story is a bit slow. Hang in there. Or, not. But, just a word of warning about the pace.
All characters are over 18.
Jessica and I climbed onto the ATV and headed back to the South Pond on my dad's... well, now her... property. The picnic basket was strapped onto the rear rack and my camera, wrapped in a couple of blankets was tied down to the front. Jessica encouraged me to drive, arranging herself behind me once the engine was fired up and I was comfortable.
This was a newer model ATV than I had been used to, but I managed to get comfortable with it fairly quickly. Getting comfortable with Jess was a different matter. Sure, I was a grown man – not easily embarrassed or made uncomfortable- but, Jessica was certainly acting a bit strangely on this visit. She'd given me the envelope of my dad's possessions, sure. And nothing particularly definitive had happened. Still, my dad's ring was clearly something strange.
It had changed size to fit my finger. What kind of jewelry does that? And, it had clearly let me read Jess's emotional states. I think it had even let me adjust them – not flipping a switch or anything – more a fanning the flames. I could sense her emotions, reading them as faint ... echoes I suppose... of what she was feeling. Some were stronger than others, but it was such a strange experience. And just wearing the ring seemed to have... I don't know, maybe, keyed something in her that reacted to me much more familiarly than I would have expected. Maybe something in her recognized the ring's presence? Who knows?
What I did know was that I needed to find a way to concentrate on driving this damned four wheeler without plowing into a tree. That would have been a lot easier if I wasn't so aware of Jessica's arms wrapped around my waist as her body was flat against mine. Sure she was in her sixties. So? I was in my forties. But, she was also my recently deceased father's girlfriend. That had to put her far off limits in everyone's book, right? Then, why was she acting so much more... familiar... with me. And I wasn't just imagining it – the ring was echoing her emotions and I could feel the arousal. It wasn't a raging out of control arousal or anything... I AM a forty year old man with no discernable Brad Pitt-like qualities... but there was something there. Of course, I admit that putting faith in what might be my delusion of this ring's abilities might indicate a whole host of other issues. Well... let's just work on the assumption that I'm not openly crazy... and if so, it's a nice crazy so why not go with it til the meds kick in, right?
The drive to the South Pond wasn't hard. It was mostly a well worn dirt path that wasn't quite a road. You could make it in a truck, but probably not a lower sitting sedan. The walk was straight forward enough, but on the ATV it was a breeze. We headed through the main pastures down to the spring fed creek that ran through most of the property crossing at the shallowest point. The creek was really just a glorified damp spot there, but would gather depth and volume as it went further along.
On the other side of the creek, the road began a climb, which would take us up to the South Field. It wasn't a particularly steep climb, but the road was fairly rutty, which meant that there were more than a couple of places that dipped and bumped us toward the top.
"Unless you've grated all this flat, Jess, this next bit is going to be a bit bumpier than average" I called back over my shoulder.
"Sure is, hon. I'll just hang on tighter. Don't you worry about me," she said closely in my ear. I could certainly hear her clearly, but I could also feel her lean in against my neck, breath on my ear.
Jessica gripped me firmly around the waist in a tight hug. I admit, it felt nice. We hit a small dip and Jess seemed to loosen her hold on me slightly, only to move in tighter, laying her palms flat against my body. The climbing road evened out, but Jessica didn't loosen her grip.
I gave myself a moment to focus on reading her through the ring. It seemed that I could get a general feel for her without much effort, but I was curious what was really going on in her head. That seemed to require an intentional act of will. Focusing on Jess' presence behind me I could feel her emotional states very clearly... really, so much more clearly than before. Possibly it was the proximity, or maybe I was better able to read now that I'd tried it a time or two. It wasn't easy to tell, but it was easy to read Jess. She was clearly, feeling... alive... a sense of confident well-being... there was the confidence I'd felt earlier... relief seemed to be present... that was a little strange... contentment... and a low thrumming of arousal. That hadn't gone away. In fact, it was slightly stronger now than before. Not the foremost thing on her mind, I thought, but something she was aware of. Interesting.
"Wake up, sleepy head, I'd like to not hit that tree if you don't mind," she said as I drifted a bit off the center of the path.
"Oh, don't tell me you're scared of a little wreck, woman." I called back to her. "I thought you were tougher than that."
"Oh I'm tough all right, kid. I just don't want to drag your sorry ass all the way home when you crack your noggin."
"Well, I'll bear that in mind."
We crested the hill and the road flattened out into open pasture. When we kept cattle out here, this pasture had seen a lot more use. Nowadays, it was just open land. I think dad would hunt out here from time to time, but otherwise it went mostly unused. Still, it looks like they had, in fact, done a good bit of work with it, as Jessica had said. Interesting. The grass in the field was probably knee deep throughout most of the open area. They had probably sent someone up here to bush hog it, not all that long ago. And, I could see that the pathway had been flattened down a bit more completely than that. They hadn't graveled it or anything, but clearly they kept it under control. Looking down the path, I could clearly see that they had done some construction out here. Wow.
When I had last been on solid terms with my dad, we had talked about putting a horse barn out this way. He had had a (in my humble opinion) wackadoodle notion of raising horses as some sort of side business. I knew enough about business and enough about horses and (frankly) enough about my dad to know that this was a disastrously bad idea. Still, he had been pretty sold on it for a while. And with that, he planned to put a whole facility out on the South pasture. I think he'd talked about a barn, a corral, grazing space, and possibly living quarters for a full time trainer. Seemed a bit wacky to me given the financial commitment, but then again, dad had always been impulsive... also, quick to get distracted... which is probably why he had clearly gotten started out here but not finished.
Jessica saw me taking it in and said in my ear, "Yeah, it was always a silly idea to do the horse thing out here. But, he'd done some of the prep work already, so I got him to work on some other options out here. I like it, myself.
There was a ... what is the term? Summer house? Folly? Gazebo? Well whatever it was supposed to be, there was a small open sided decorative shelter sitting about 5 yards from the pond's bank. The pond itself was clearly being maintained with freshly mown grass around the banks extending back some 30 yards. Though, I had remembered seeing stumps and grown up places throughout the pond, it seems that dad had removed those. It was a fairly uniform body of water now. I could see that they had installed a small boat dock and a two person rowboat was tied up to it. And on the far side of the pond at the edge of the mown area was a free-standing cabin of some sort. It was smallish, probably two rooms. There were flower beds planted around it. Even though it was quite small, there was a small porch on the front with two rocking chairs. Very picturesque I suppose.
We pulled up to the cabin and I killed the engine.
"What do you think, Mikey."
"It's actually pretty nice, Jessica. I'm a little surprised. I wasn't enthusiastic about the whole horse thing."
"Oh me neither, hon. That was a boondoggle waiting to happen, but your dad had already started clearing some of this. He put in the cabin and ran water and sewer out here before I could pull him away from the notion. So, I thought it'd be nice to use the investment without losing everything to horse training."
