"No dear," my wife Kay replied when my brother's daughter asked her if she would like to take a hike back in the woods to watch the way that the colors had changed with the coming of fall. "You and Dan go. I did that with you a couple of years ago and you wore me out."
It was all I could do to keep from screaming YES at the top of my lungs, even though it was no surprise that my wife of 24 years would turn our niece down. Not only because she's turned into a lazy and self-centered woman, but because she never warmed up to Amanda like she did to the kids in her sister's family.
"You still want to go, Uncle Dan?" Amanda asked, pushing her glasses back up her nose while looking at me hopefully.
"Absolutely," I proclaimed, and after changing into more sensible shoes I followed my late brother's only child out back, where a short walk across a field led to state owned land and a network of informal trails that Amanda knew by heart.
Amanda is a girl who likes animals and nature more than people, and as I looked at the girl whose 18th birthday was the reason for our visit over the Columbus Day holiday I realized that she was no longer a girl physically or chronologically.
She was always a skinny thing, but even though she tried to conceal it as best she could by wearing drab and baggy clothing, there was no mistaking the fact that although she had skinny arms and legs and not much rear, there was quite a lot going on up top.
Sadly, Amanda seemed embarrassed by what had seemed to be a sudden burst of growth in the last year or two, although when you only see people once or twice a year it's hard to keep up with them.
Facially, Amanda seemed to take more after her mother than my late brother, which isn't in her favor. Amanda's mother Claire is a nice enough woman but as plain as they come. My brother could have done much better physically, but he had loved Claire with all his heart right to the end, and that's all that matters. Trust me, as a contributor to a marriage of convenience, I was always jealous of him even though my wife was more attractive physically.
"You ever get lost back here?" I asked Amanda as we entered the woods and I walked alongside Amanda on the informal trail that had no markings.
"Not since I was little," Amanda said. "Me and Dad, I think we made a lot of these trails ourselves just by walking back here constantly."
I nodded, remembering that my brother had always been a fitness nut, always walking and hiking and exercising, which made it weird that a guy like him who never smoked and rarely drank would be the one to keel over instead of me. While I'm in good shape, I spend less time at the gym than I do at my local watering hole.
I quizzed Amanda about what she had been up to in between her giving me tutorials about the varieties of trees and bushes we were hiking through, finding out that she was doing great at school but when I asked her about the boy she had been going with the last time we were out there, she got quiet.
"Oh. Sorry," I said, putting my arm around her shoulder and giving her a little squeeze.
This Todd kid might have been Amanda's first serious - heck, maybe her only serious boyfriend, and they seemed to be a good match because he was as nerdy as Amanda was. The last time I had been out her I accidentally caught them necking behind the house.
I had watched for a minute before ducking back around before they saw me, and while it was nothing but two kids kissing, it still gave me a hard-on. That tells you something about my sex life, when two teenagers dueling tongues makes me envious. I would have given anything to have taken Todd's place, as sick as that sounds.
Since that incident last fall when it hit me that my niece was growing up, I had become a little obsessed about Amanda. I had even taken to reading stories on this website called Literotica about uncles doing things to their nieces, things that up until recently would have been unthinkable.
"Well, I'm sure that another lucky guy will come along and make you forget about what's-his-name," I kidded, which made Amanda smile.
"Maybe," she said, and as I looked at her I thought that if she put a little more thought into her appearance, like doing something with her hair, she would have her choice of guys. The short cut she wore looked like she either had a bad stylist or did it herself.
Amanda would definitely attract more attention if she wore something that accentuated her assets instead of masking them in baggy sweatshirts and t-shirts, and as the leaves crackled under our feet I looked at Amanda's breasts which were swaying underneath probably three layers of clothing.
That morning I had been disgusting, snooping around while the women were out back discussing Claire's mums. I had looked through Amanda's room a bit, hoping for a glimpse of something to indicate that her life was more exciting that mine, and had even peeked into the laundry.
The Dan Monroe Story. That was what went through my head as I stood there by the bathroom window, looking out at my wife, my sister-in-law and my niece while I held a pair of panties to my face that I had fished out of the hamper. This is your life, a 51 year old man sniffing panties that had a 50% chance of being his niece's, burrowing my nose in the slight discoloration in the crotch.
The bra. I didn't know for sure whether the panties had been Amanda's or her mother's, but telling which of the 2 bras in the hamper belonged to which woman was a piece of cake. I picked up the bra with the modest cups which were slightly padded and glanced at the faded tag. 34B, which had to be Elaine's, and noted that my sister-in-law was a cup size smaller than my wife.
The other bra was Amanda's, and I remember staring at the massive cups of the harness, marveling that such a skinny girl could fill such a garment. I had to hold the tag up next to the bathroom light to made out the tiny print because I didn't think I was reading it right. 32E. 32E? Good grief, I didn't know there was such a thing.
Poor Amanda was out there in the garden unaware that her perverted uncle was inside, playing with her undergarments while glancing back and forth at her and her over-sized bra. Hell, I even hooked and undid the three clasps in the front, imagining it was on Amanda when I did it and picturing those big breasts lurching out when it came free.
"Sorry, honey," I said, so lost in the daydreaming that I didn't realize my niece had been talking to me.
"I said that I miss Dad even more now than ever," Amanda repeated for my benefit. "It's been three years but it still hurts."
"I know it does honey. I miss him too. He was a good man."
"When you're around, it's even worse in a way," Amanda said as we reached a crest of a hill, having gone so deep in the woods that Amanda's house was nowhere in sight, nor was any civilization. "You remind me a lot of him."
"Sorry," I said meekly.
"No, that's good in a way too," Amanda said. "I like to remember him."
We had stopped walking, and all of a sudden Amanda turned and hugged me. I was stunned but hugged her back, and I think Amanda sobbed a little as we held each other tightly for a couple of moments.
"My turn for sorry," Amanda sniffed. "Dad and I used to hug around here, and he used to tell me that someday I would probably bring boys up here and I would forget all about him."
"It's nice that you haven't forgotten him, but I'm not a boy. Wish I was," I added, ashamed that while Amanda was hugging me and wishing I was her father, I was getting hard while feeling her breasts against my stomach through countless layers of clothing.
"You take Todd back here?" I said, trying to lighten the mood, and Amanda didn't answer with words but her blush told me plenty. "Lucky guy."
"Guess we better get going back," Amanda said, but didn't seem eager about it so I chimed in.
"Too bad. This is beautiful back here."
"Yeah but I gotta - you know?"
