This story, as is all stories, isn't written for everyone. If you enjoyed it, thank you very much and you're welcome. If not, thank you for visiting.
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My husband Jerry and I have a mountain cabin/house that has an exceptional view out the back looking over the valley and our town. There's a long curving driveway from the road to the house and it's wider so cars can pass each other. Asphalt with a nice solid base, as my husband describes it. It's long, about 175 feet, more than 4 houses, he said. I'm sitting in the front window watching him working on the 6 inches of snow that fell last night. I need to talk to him about something. About Abram. He knows about it but he doesn't know about it. It just needs clarification, that's all.
Jerry has a snow blower with tracks instead of wheels and he's installed those tire pads on the chute paddles so it'll throw even water slush way off the drive and it never clogs up. He also made a small hitch for the back bottom and a sulky to ride behind the snow blower. He rides up and down the drive like a warrior on that sulky behind the snow blower. I love watching the snow going way up and spreading out again coming down. It's my job to do the porch but that doesn't take me long. He won't let me near his snow.
We come up about twice a month to check on things and spend the night or weekend but this time it's to get ready for our holiday stay. It's three days until Christmas. We always come up two or three days after Christmas and stay until several days after New Year's day. With the views we have out the back we can see multiple fireworks up and down the valley on New Year's eve. Morgan, our daughter, is expected in from school a couple of days after the New Yeas and can stay until about the middle of the month. It's her first year in higher education. She did bring a friend home for thanksgiving, a girl. They seemed to just be casual friends.
Jerry was almost finished. I had hot coffee and hot chili and garlic bread and scones for him. A flavor attack. It took him as long to get out of his gear as it did to get it on. I watched but stayed back. It's an adventure just watching. He went away and came back with his hair combed and looking fresher and got settled at the kitchen island and ate.
After some snow conversation I said, "Remember last week I mentioned about Abram staying with us, well, what do you think?"
Abram is the junior minister and teaches some of the classes. He also takes care of accounting and stuff like that. He's our age. We're in our 40's. He isn't married and lives in a small apartment supplied to him. Different families invite him to an evening or weekend with them for food and atmosphere and conversation. I've heard he's quite personable. Living alone I wouldn't wonder. Just glad to get someone to talk with outside his daily life probably.
Jerry said, "Ben and Sarah had him over so I asked Ben how he was. Ben said to expect him to be very friendly. He said he spent a lot of time with his wife and seemed to be starved for some personal attention, as he called it. He didn't say anything beyond that. I asked someone else I know and he said about the same."
"I've heard that too," I said. "He is handsome. I suppose I could fight him off. I wonder how personable he gets. Might be fun." I was looking at Jerry sideways with a sly smile when I said that. He ignored me but smiled.
"I stopped in and talked to Gray about him," he said. "See what he knows about it. Gray was reluctant but he said, 'I haven't heard a single bad comment about Abram's behavior and actually had a number of comments about how nice it was to have him over. Still, some of the ladies comments in private, which I'm not supposed to be telling you so keep that in mind, gives me the impression he was quite, uh, why don't we use the word 'entertaining', whatever that means. I wasn't going to ask for clarification. I think he's just lonely. Sometimes we all are.'."
"You talked to Gray," I said. "The first minister. I'm surprised he told you that much. What should I do with Abram if he gets like that, personable."
"That's easy," Jerry said. "Let me tell you in man talk. If he takes you away from me I'll beat his face in then run him through the snow blower so it throws his pieces down the mountain side for the birds and animals. Outside of that I have no doubt he is lonely and does need some attention. If you see he wants to be personable and you do too then I hope you both enjoy yourselves."
"Ok," I said. "So, how far personable?"
"That's easy too," he said. "Anytime you worry I might not approve of something you need to divert to something else because you're the one that doesn't approve. Let that be your guide. I also know being personable isn't just sitting looking into someone else's eyes. He can do that behind his desk. I won't try to define it because you already know what it is and I'm sure he does too. What do you think about this?"
I thought about it. Jerry was quiet, eating chili. I said, "I wouldn't mind being a female around him, having some unexpected pleasure, and at the same time sharing it with someone that needs it. And there's always our standing declaration.. Nothing I do or you do can ever cause the slightest concern between you and I. I won't do anything that isn't open book. I want us to be so comfortable with it we can be beside each other and everybody enjoy themselves."
"I can do that but I'm not going to leer," he said. "It'll ruin it for him. As long as he knows I know and don't mine you two together I'm good. If you two want to kiss you should be able to let yourselves and enjoy it. Try not to let it cut me out totally. I like your hot bod. He may be quite shy but not from what I hear. How are you two going to get going?"