Chapter One - Life with Donna - Charles Fornau

“No, Uncle Charlie, I was her stepdaughter. She kept me after Dad died in Iraq. That was what, about four years ago? It would have looked bad if she hadn’t. Not many people know, though. You didn’t, for example. Doug did, but he thought we were closer.” I looked at her in question. “He thought Sherri and I were closer. We weren’t, I guess. In any case, she gave me five grand out of the life insurance money your brother left her and told me to come find you. If you want to help me until I can get my feet on the ground, I would appreciate it, but knowing what you know now, I doubt you are going to want to do that.”

“Donna, are you telling me that not only are we not related, which I already knew, but that you were Sherri’s STEPdaughter? Seriously? You aren’t related to her either?”

She nodded then shook her head, acknowledging my recent education into her background.

I let my surprise just tumble out. “Well, shut the door. Who’da knowed? It’s probably been just a bit obvious, but you do know I’ve had a crush on you since you were like fourteen or fifteen, then, right?”

“I hoped so and yeah, I guess I did. Your brother told me when I graduated, not to invite you to the ceremony or you’d sweep me up in your arms and he and Sherri would never see me again.”

I snickered at that. “I’m not that much of a dirty old man, but that sounds kinda fun. You know, I always wondered why you were such a beautiful little girl with pretty red locks and she was a mean looking woman with dishwater blonde hair.” I reached out and took some of her gorgeous hair in my fingers. She didn’t react, other than smiling. “I remember, though, you used to call her ‘Mom’,” I mentioned.

Donna shrugged. “That was back when I thought she cared whether I lived or died. I called her Mom, because I felt that we could be close. I thought we WERE close. I was obviously wrong. I’ll bet she never even called you to tell you about this. Me showing up here. That was another clue about how you felt, by the way. She gave me a two-year-old Christmas card envelope, a great big green one, addressed to me, not to them, and told me to put your address into the GPS in Dad’s old car. She signed the back of the title, handed it and a fat envelope to me, and then said, ‘Go have a nice life’. She did give me a chance to pack everything I could into the car.”

“Yeah, I remember sending that card. That was the Christmas before you turned sixteen. You just turned seventeen a few weeks ago. You got that card, too, right?”

“Yes, but there was no return address left on it. It was on the flap, and she ripped the flap off when she handed me the envelope with the card in it. I don’t think she liked you, Uncle Charlie.”

“Donna, just Charlie will be fine. Just call me Charlie, for now. OK? I think Uncle Charlie is a little bit below your age group as far as protocol goes. You’re an adult, for all intents and purposes. Evidently Sherri thought so. Maybe she looked it up. In this state, seventeen is the age of consent, and you are well past that. Anyway, I’m really happy to see you again, and welcome to Missouri. What’s it been now, six weeks?”

“Yeah, about that, anyway. The funeral was terrible. I wish I could have left with you then, but I thought Doug was just kidding with me. Sherri said he wasn’t, and that you were my last and best hope, and a chance at a real future. She evidently no longer wanted anything to do with me, and her new boyfriend…” I gasped. “You heard that right. I just found out she’s been seeing this guy for a year or so behind Doug’s back. What a tramp. Anyway, he told her to lose me or stay behind. Here I am.”

“Oh, Donna, how true. How right you are. A tramp indeed. I can’t believe she was cheating on Doug, too, but it makes sense. Doug told me about the box of letters he found.”

“Letters?” she questioned. I nodded. “Oh, yeah! The shoebox?” I nodded again. “Yeah, Robert. What a loser. I didn’t know any better at the time. If Dad would have known, things surely would have been different.”

“I’ll bet. Oh, and the thing about Sherri not liking me? Sadly, you are probably wrong! Doug actually told me once to stay away from her. Seriously. As if I’d want anything to do with her. She slipped one time and called him ‘Charlie’. Not good.”

“When did she do that?”

“When they were… Uhmmm, when they were in bed? I’m trying to put that as delicately as possible.”

“Oh, my God. She called him by your name when they were making whoopee. Oh, what a gas. Maybe that was the night I heard him screaming at her, and after every door in the house slammed at least twice, they slept in separate rooms. How funny!”

“Looking back on it, yeah, I guess it was. OK, sweetheart, what’s your plan?”

“Somehow, I need to get you to want to keep me so I can finish school, then apply for scholarships and go to college somewhere. I want learn how to make stuff.”

“Just make ‘stuff’. Do you care what?”

“No, not really. I just want to make things. Machines, computers, cars. I don’t care. I just have an itch.”

“Not a bad itch to have, at all. So, you don’t mind that I have a thing for you?”

“Nope.”

“Then I think your plan may work. Chicken or fish?”

“What?”

“For dinner, doll. Chicken or fish. You get to help decide stuff now. Call Sherri and tell her I said, ‘her loss’.”

“Uncle…” I glared at her. “OK. Charlie! Charlie, I really don’t want to talk to her. I thought about her on the way up here, then I looked at the speedometer and I was doing eighty-five and grinding my teeth.”

“Not good. Teeth are hard to fix. Dial her number and hand me your phone.” She did. I waited until Sherri answered. “It’s Charlie. She’s safe. Probably safer than she has been for a long time. Your loss, by the way. Don’t say anything, you’d just ruin the moment.” I pushed the red phone button to hang up.

It rang a few seconds later then stopped after Donna pushed about six buttons. “Blocked. Such is life. She knows where you are if she needs us.”

“I like the way you think, little girl. Speaking of little girls, how are you set for stuff. Things. You know, clothes, soap, little girl stuff.”

“I’m good. I’ll have to hit a store this month, but I can last a while if you have a washer and dryer. Or a washboard, some soap, and some strong string.” She smiled at me.

I hugged her to me, kissed the top of her head and said, “Good. We’ll go shopping in the city this weekend. Welcome home, Donna. I’m glad you’re here. Really glad. Honestly, I’m really happy you showed up. I’ve been mostly by myself and really feeling kind of lonely for quite a while. Don’t hurt me, please.”

“I have no plans of biting the hand, as it were. Thank you for taking me in, Unc… Charlie.” She spared herself another glare. “Same here, by the way. Your little crush isn’t exactly one sided.”

“Pray tell, missy.”

“It’s been more than two years ago, now. At their wedding. You danced with me. Your hand was in the small of my back. I was wearing that nothing little dress I found in my mother’s things. It felt like I belonged in your arms. Your hand on my skin. That feeling never went away. I’ve never since felt like that dancing with any number of men, young or otherwise, or boys, your brother included. He was nice to me, though. I’ve always thought of him as a decent stepfather. Then there were the others. Yuck. You know most of your gender are pigs, right?” I chuckled and nodded. “You, though, I’ve always thought of as a possibility.”

“A possibility?”

“Yeah. Relationship wise. I always thought of you as a possibility. Don’t ask me why. Love is blind, but the dance, and the Christmas card, this last birthday card, with the letter you wrote inside, hoping I was doing OK and all, and my little girl fantasies pretty well set me up for some wild dreams. You’d be surprised what fifteen and sixteen-year-old girls think about.”

“I’ll bet I would. You ever wonder what thirty-year-old guys think about?”

“Hopefully the same things, if this is going to work. Charlie, can I kiss you?”

“Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime.”

We kissed a kiss of lovers, not relatives. I was pretty sure, right then, that my future had been written, and I was going to play the lead role to the best of my abilities.

“My, oh my, that was nice. I’ve never felt that, either. I’ve kissed a few frogs, Charlie, but nothing ever felt like that.”

“I agree. I’ve kissed a few snakes as well, and you’re right. That was different. I didn’t feel your hand in my pants, either.”

“Whoa!! Slow down, bucko!”

“I meant reaching for my wallet. You know, as in gold diggers?”

“Why would you have a gold digger problem?”

“Gold? Maybe? Ya’ think?” I smiled at her to keep her from thinking I was being mean.

“How much gold?”

“Enough to dig for.”

“Cool. I have forty-nine-hundred dollars and change, so I don’t need your gold. Chicken. I’m tired of fish. Fish sticks and fish patties with peas and carrots get old after a while. Martha Stewart, Sherri wasn’t. I started liking the peas more than the fish in no time.”

“Fish sticks? No problem. Not the way I normally serve fish. Trust me. So, you came here just for me? Really?”

“Well, Sherri sent me this way, hoping you’d have me, but yes, I came to you willingly, hoping you’d take me in. I didn’t know about any gold, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It is. That’s nice to know. Really nice. Come help me with dinner after you get your stuff in the guest room.”

“Thanks, Charlie. I mean that. Thank you.” She hugged me, pressing her forehead into my chest as if trying to make an impression, an indentation, that is, and went out to her car.

She spent about half an hour putting her stuff in the guest room then came out and helped me around the kitchen, with a little guidance.

“Donna, do you have a debit card, or what? You said you had some money.”

“Cash. She handed me a stack of hundreds and bundle of twenties, the title, and shooed me out the door.”

“I’ll get you to the bank as soon as we can. Maybe tomorrow. That much cash laying around is dangerous.”

“I was planning on doing that, too. I should have bought a prepaid card or something on the way out of town, but I just wanted to get away from her, and there, and the whole idea of her not wanting me around anymore. Oh well, when she gets to hell maybe my father can give her some ‘what for’. He’d have to get a three day pass out of heaven, but she’d deserve it, so maybe…” She giggled. That made me think she’d be OK. I thought maybe we’d be OK, too.

I chuckled at the way she said it. I’d never heard a bad word about her father, a senior NCO in the Army assigned to an outfit in Iraq. They were ambushed by a massive ISIS force our satellites lost track of. When I checked up on it with some friends, I was shocked, but shit happens in wars, even if they aren’t called that. My grandfather and father both beat that into my head, Vietnam being the closest thing to a war you can have and still not call it one.

In any case, her father was a decorated soldier and deserved better than Sherri. That was for sure. Doug got drunk one night while I was visiting and told me he found the shoebox full of love letters from a guy named Robert addressed to Sherri at a post office box. They were all dated during the time she was married to Donna’s father whose name was Donald. Yeah, Donald. Not Robert. I felt that Donald and Douglas deserved… Well, at least Donald deserved better. My brother, Doug, had his moments. He probably deserved exactly what he was dealt. Maybe not the truck hitting him broadside, killing him instantly, but the rest of it. The cheating wife, the loss of his job, all that was probably his own fault. I’m just glad they kept his life insurance paid up. At least his bills will be paid, and Sherri can start over with her new beau.

In case you were wondering, Doug and I weren’t very close. Not close at all, actually. We just never clicked the way brothers sometimes, or more so, usually do.

The chicken dish came out fine, as it always does, cooked in the oven with mushroom soup and rice. She liked it, anyway, and that was what mattered. Of course, I did, or I wouldn’t have made it in the first place. Nothing worse than bad food. Well, maybe bad family, but what’s a fellow to do.

We stayed up for quite a while that first night, supposedly watching a movie, but we never stopped talking. She wanted me to know about school, all the people there, girls and boys, and how she hoped where she went for her senior year was different. She made sure I knew, after every story about the boys, that nothing happened other than some kissing and a couple of boys showing they were from Eastern and Southern European descent. “You know, Russian hands and Roman fingers?” She made sure I knew she shut them all down.

“Donna, have you thought about private school? An all-girl school maybe?” She looked at me a bit funny. “Just wondering. I wasn’t making any judgments or anything.” That was probably when it dawned on me that she was just trying to make sure I knew she wasn’t giving it away or anything.

“No, I haven’t. Private schools are expensive. I have less than five thousand dollars to last me until I can get into college, so I need to make it all count. AP classes and all. College isn’t cheap anymore. Not like back in the olden days when you went through, anyway.” She giggled and grinned at me.

“I’ll have you know I worked my way through school as a military student. I had lots to do to make sure my scholarship didn’t get cut off. I had to make my bed and everything.” I smiled, causing her to break out in laughter.

“Right. Got it. No matter, you graduated. What happened next?”

“I went from the student Air Force into the real Air Force, learned how to fly, and evidently did a pretty good job of it. Then they had me fly an airplane no one talks about, but only for a few minutes until it fell apart, I got hurt really badly, recovered and had to leave the service and come back home. You see, Miss Donna, I have physical limitations that Air Force pilots can’t have. I got smashed up pretty badly. I spent a few months in intensive care, several more months in physical therapy, and with quite a little help from the good Lord, here I am.”

“OK, so where’d the gold come from?”

“One night, lying there in the intensive care unit, not being able to move anything below my sternum, and having my meals and fluids provided for me through tubes, I had a brainstorm. I had a nurse get me a pen and paper, took down some notes, had the same nurse get me an iPad and a Surface computer using my credit card, I won’t mention the huge bribe, then spent a month researching and putting together an idea that had quite literally never been thought of before. After they took the tubes out, I was ready to talk to someone about it, so I called my father’s old lawyer, he came and looked at what I had, made some phone calls, and we were both fairly wealthy a couple of weeks later. He made several million dollars off that deal taking six percent of what I got.”

“I’m doing the math, although quite slowly, as I’m looking at you, and am quite distracted while I’m doing it. If six percent was several million dollars, ninety-four percent was like a few more million than that. Correct?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Hence… The gold.”

“I love it when you call me sweetheart.”

“I love being able to call you that without my brother, or your… Your wicked stepmother correcting me or giving me the evil eye. If you are my sweetheart, I’ll do the dishes tonight, then show you where the washer and dryer are.”

“I am your sweetheart, Charlie, if you’ll have me. I’ve wanted to be since I… I’ve wanted to be for a long time. I don’t want to share too awfully much personal information just yet. Just assume there were more trips to the female products aisle at the store after I wanted to be your sweetheart than there were before.” I looked at her with a question on my face. “That made no sense at all, did it?”

“I’m sorry, Donna, but it made perfect sense to me. You’re trying to tell me you felt like a wanton woman when you were pining for me.” I chuckled. She frowned. “Don’t be that way. I was a pretty bad man while I was pining away for my crush down south. I’m so glad you drove up from Atlanta to be with me, doll. I really am. Another kiss?”

“Anytime, sir. Anytime.” She giggled, then kissed me after wrapping her arms around my neck.

The second one… The second kiss was better than the first. Just enough information had been passed back and forth between us for this man, just over ten years her senior, to know he was well and truly in love with the princess that graced his presence. Now, I just needed to spend enough time with her, doing the right things, to ensure she was feeling the same. I had all the time in the world. I had nothing else to do. Well, almost nothing. Hopefully, she wouldn’t become otherwise occupied. We parted and went to bed, her in the guest room and me in my master bedroom suite. I thought about her for about ten seconds, then I was out like a light. All the commotion of having her there and all the thoughts of her in my life had tired me out completely and I slept like a log.

I woke up with a log as well. I was thinking it was a normal morning thing, but I’m pretty sure I dreamt of her. I don’t remember ever being that hard, let alone having a morning problem that painful. It subsided, naturally, as they always do, so I was able to take care of my normal morning business in the shower after several minutes, but it reminded me just how much this little woman had affected me. Being honest with myself, it reminded me just how much she turned me on.

When I made it out to my own kitchen and found her rummaging for fixings, I pretty much lost my mind. She was so adorable. The look on her face, the concentration, her little tongue sticking out sideways when she opened a cabinet…

“May I help you find something, little one?”

“OH! You scared me. Yes, my prince. Coffee? Filters? HELP!!!”

“Consider it done. For a kiss, I will show you anything you want.”

“Oh, God! No! Morning breath.”

“Yes! I don’t care.”

“In that case, I apologize in advance.”

“I accept your apology and I want it anyway.” We kissed, lightly, but touched tongues and shared a bit of breath. “Not anything to be ashamed of, sweetness. I am certainly not afraid to kiss you under the same circumstances again.”

“Likewise. In fact, Charlie, I want another. One like last night, then I’ll make coffee. Do me a favor, please, and put your hands on my hips and kiss me.” I did just that, caressing her waistline a bit. “That’s nice. A guy did that once, and it was almost… It wasn’t you. I’m sorry. He was a nice guy, but he wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Donna, how long…”

“Since you picked me up and hugged me at the reception after the wedding. We met just months before that, and I watched you the whole time, hoping, just hoping you weren’t with someone else. Especially when you came back for the wedding, alone. Then, at the reception, when you danced with me, I thought maybe, just maybe, a little girl could somehow… I knew then.”

“That’s so funny. I thought it would be nice, but figured you’d find someone your own age and I’d never have a shot at a little pixie… An elven princess… A young woman with red…”

“WHAT!?”

“I have this thing.”

“You have a fetish for little redheads?”

“Guilty.”

“I sentence you to a life of living in your fantasy. I’m here. Keep me. Never let me go.” She gave me another hug and a peck on my lips. “Now, let me go. I need coffee whether you do or not.” She laughed loudly and took the ingredients from me as I handed them to her. The grounds from the fridge and the filters from the cabinet, anyway. The water was a given, and the pot was a Bunn, so that was pretty much a done deal as well.

I made her breakfast then we cleaned up and I ran her into town so she could set up a bank account and get a debit card. That way she’d have access to her money without carrying around all that cash. I didn’t think she’d need it from that point on, but she didn’t know that, so I let it go. I just needed to run interference and make sure I paid for whatever I could. It seemed to me like she was happy with me, so maybe, unless I found she was insincere about the money thing, the gold digger thing, we’d be happy together. I was hoping so. Hoping beyond hope, more realistically. Except for the sale of my little inventions, I hadn’t been that lucky in the past. Not with women. Not with careers. And certainly not with experimental hypersonic airplanes.

She made me very comfortable with our newly formed relationship. She wasn’t in a hurry, she just wanted to make sure we were sympatico, if you will. Getting along for the long term, as opposed to just being in lust and having a fling. She was, it looked to be, most definitely looking out for our futures.

“Donna, the fact that you are talking like this makes me think you know what you’re doing.”

“I do, Charlie. I don’t want you this week or this year. You aren’t the boy flavor of the week like the girls in school have. I don’t work that way. I want one guy. I want to give that one guy my everything. I want us to take our time, because I think that guy will be you. I hope so. I want you to want me that way, too.”

“Understood. Hon, I haven’t had much luck with girls. Women. I’ve had a few tries go south on me. One was long ago, in college. I thought it might work. She just wanted someone to boss around and treat as a second-class citizen, making her feel big. That didn’t work. Later there was one that didn’t know I had money, but she just wanted someone to take care of her. No ambition, no desire to do anything for herself, or for me, for that matter. That didn’t work. Then there were a couple who did know about the money and I found out too late that’s what they saw in me. Dollar signs. Those didn’t work, either.

“I’ll be honest, honey. I had sex with a couple of them, thinking we had something. From what I’ve read, and seen on the internet since then, I don’t know much about it. Sex, I mean. You need to be careful with that information. Do you have any? Experience, that is?”

“None. I read, too. I’ve seen things on the web I wasn’t supposed to see. It looks fun, but other than a little kissing and diddling with a friend at a sleep over, me pretending she was you, and her pretending I was her cousin, I don’t have any firsthand knowledge either. I was kind of hoping you had a handle on that, but I guess we can learn together. Maybe? Someday? I’m in no hurry, if you aren’t. I want to know that you want to keep me first. If that’s OK.”

“It’s perfect. We can learn together then. Maybe work slowly up the ladder, or around the bases, to use the old schoolyard reference. So far, we’ve been to first base. Your kisses are divine.”

“I think so, too.” She giggled. “Yours are, I mean. The first one was nice. The second one makes me think what I just said is a load of crap and I want to climb your body and do things. Dangerous things. Loving, yet erotic things. Sexy things. STOP, DONNA! Yes, we’re safe on first base. For now.” She giggled as we pulled into the driveway back home.

We stayed on first base for the better part of three weeks, then, out of the blue, more so out of the southwest, came a storm of pretty attention getting strength. One who reads stories involving romance, will often read of the young maiden climbing into bed with the strange older man to seek shelter from the storm. Hell, kids have very innocently been doing that with their parents since caveman days, so it’s nothing new. In any case, I saw the intense flash through my eyelids, heard the boom, felt the house shake, and shortly thereafter the bed moved and a little redheaded fairy snuggled up to me.

“That was scary, Charlie. Hold me.”

“Mmm hmm.” I did, pulling her into my chest and stomach, and we fell asleep soon after.

When I woke, it was in the age-old position of spoons, my hand on her breast, her hand over mine, and my morning erection snuggled in between her butt cheeks. I gently pressed into her, just to let my little friend have a bit of fun, hoping beyond hope, though, that we wouldn’t get caught.

“That feels so good,” Donna whispered. We did. We had a little fun. We also got caught.

“You have no idea, little one. No idea at all.”

“Do you want to finish there? I don’t mind if you want to. I can just throw my jams in the wash.” That caught me off guard. My little friend said ‘Yes’.

“Are you sure, honey? We can wait if you like.”

“No, please, I’d like you to. I think it will be fun. I want it, really.”

I humped again into her butt crack, the tip of my erection up at the top, comfortable in the soft flannel of her shorts. “Oh, Donna, that feels good.”

“Yes, it does. Here, and trust me, I want this. Not much more than this for right now, but I want this.” She took my hand off her breast and put it to her crotch, pushing my palm and fingers into her mons with her hand. “Ohhhh. Uhmmm. Charlie, that feels good. Squeeze. Yes. Fingers. Yessss.”

I felt her shiver, then I started throbbing, spasming, and came on her back, the semen staying between us in the cloth of her pajamas, then the unthinkable happened.

“Ahnnggg. Shhhhittttt. Charlie, you made me come. Oh, jeez, how wonderful. Hold it. Keep your hand there. Don’t move. Please. Stay. Just like that. Squeeze me again. Ahhhh. Yes. Oh, my God, how cool. I had no idea. It’s never been that strong. So nice.”

I rolled her over on her tummy, so I was laying on her back, withering erection still in her crack, the wetness now felt on my stomach, and most assuredly on her lower back.

“You have no idea how right you are. That was the best I’ve ever felt, too, sweetheart. So nice. Are you OK?”

“Totally. I love this. With you lying on me. Sounds funny, probably, but I feel like I’m yours. Like you own me or something. I like it. Warm. Safe. Secure.”

I took her hands in mine and spread hers out over her head then nuzzled and kissed her neck, pushing her hair aside with my nose, then kissing her cheek, and finally getting to her lips, her head turned toward me about as far as she could turn, and me leaning into her as far as I could, too. Her smile was captivating. Honest, sincere, heartfelt, and true, her smile convinced me we were on a good path.

“It doesn’t sound funny at all. I feel on the other end of that. Like you’re mine. That you want me. Want me to keep you warm, safe, and secure. I want this, Donna. I want you. Please, again, don’t hurt me. I want to give you all I am. All I have to give. I want you to have me, Donna.”

“I won’t hurt you, Charlie. I know you need to go to the bathroom. You always do in the morning. Go in the shower, please, and I’ll use your john. I need to go, too. Thank you for this, by the way. I wanted it. I really did. I hope you did, too.”

I rose, picked her up and carried her into the master bathroom, setting her down on the floor in front of the toilet and entering the shower alone. I had completely clear glass panels for shower walls, so she could see all of me. She peeled her wet, sticky pajamas off, showing me she had nothing on underneath. Good God, Almighty, she was beautiful. Her body was a work of art. Light freckles everywhere, gorgeous blue-green eyes, perfect lips, naturally red in tint, breasts round and high, and large for her frame, with puffy areola and prominent hard nipples, and a waist I could probably put my hands around and touch my fingers, I’m sure. All of those amazingly attractive attributes were over a marvelously sculpted little bubble butt and perfectly shaped legs with slender ankles and cute little feet.

She turned toward me showing me a small patch of red pubic hair over her puffy little mound. I could see the split of her outer lips with a little nub, her clitoris, trying to climb out and be seen. Good. I wanted to see her little buddy, too.

“Donna, you’re beautiful. Gorgeous. Striking. Stunning.”

“Thank you. Can I come in when I’m done here? There is something I need to do.”

“Please.”

She sat on the toilet and as soon as I thought I heard the little tinkling of her pee, I started doing the same in the shower under the water. I was done about the same time she was. She dabbed and flushed, then threw her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Charlie, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking!”

“No problem, doll. My plumbing is set up so that it doesn’t matter. Large supply pipes, smaller feed lines, and the toilets are on the end of the line. You can’t feel it. The temperature doesn’t change enough to notice. Something to keep in mind if you want to ‘build stuff’.”

“Neat.” She climbed in and reached out for me. Running her hands over each and every one of the scars she could find, a couple of which led her to some pretty private areas, she was totally engrossed, not paying a bit of attention to my expression, nor my returning erection. She traced one of the scars from my lower rib cage, down my side, into the crease of my torso and thigh junction, under the base of my penis, across the front of my scrotum and back to my other thigh. She asked me to lift my leg and finished tracing it back up in my ass crack, about two inches from my rectum. I thank God, every time I pay any attention to it, that it was a relatively superficial wound. Any deeper and everything I had inside would have wound up outside of my abdomen and all over the instrument panel. She finished, tracing the other scars down my neck and across one of my nipples, then down the other side of my chest and across my navel to just above where my pubic hair would have been.

Then she startled me. She took my dick in her hand and asked me, “Charlie, can I have this. I want it for my very own. I want the man that it’s attached to also, but I want to be able to hold this and know it belongs to me.”

“Yes. Donna, it’s way too early for this, but will you marry me? I know it’s only been months, and only a couple of them or so since you came up, but if you want it, really want it, for all time, that’s the only way this can end up. Love me and I will give you anything you want.”

“Right now, I only want you. Yes. I will. I will marry you. After I graduate. Until then, though, I’ll consider myself your wife, so act accordingly. I’m already helping with laundry, meals, mowing, and I even vacuumed, so that’s already a done deal, but what happened this morning will happen again. And again, then get better with time.”

“It was awfully good, honey. Better is going to be pretty darned nice.”

“I know, huh?” She giggled, wrapped herself around me then washed me. She helped my erection down the old-fashioned way, watching it spew all over her breasts, then let me shampoo her hair and wash her. I didn’t penetrate her vaginally, but I was there, rubbing my finger lengthwise along her furrow, as she dug her fingernails into my arm and squealed until she needed my help standing. “Oh, my. Again, you took me there. That was nice, Charlie, but I need to go lay down. Wash me, hurry, prince, before your princess falls over from an ecstasy overload.”

We finished, dried, and I carried her back to the bed and snuggled her to me. Both of us were nude, with the exception of a towel around her hair, turban style. She looked like a cotton candy cone. The towel was bigger around than she was. It was cute.

The knock on the door was a bit surprising, as I get few, if any of those out here in the middle of nowhere, and of course, their timing was impeccable, Donna and I lying in each other’s arms, after our shower. Just the same, I looked out the window and saw two County Sheriff’s Department vehicles.

As my little lover ran down the hall laughing, almost quietly, I threw on some shorts and a T-shirt, then answered the door.

“Hey, Brent. What brings you out this way?”

“Business, Charlie. Sorry to bother. Charlie Curry, this is Detective John Parson, Atlanta P.D. He’d like to ask you, and hopefully one Donna Curry some questions about your brother’s passing.”

“Sure. Come on in. DONNA! THE POLICE ARE HERE!”

Chapter Two - Life with Donna - Charles Fornau

“WHAT?” was heard, from the guest room, plainly, by all concerned. She came out wearing a shorts outfit, cuter than a button, and sandals, effectively looking like she’d been up and dressed forever. Good move, Donna, regardless of the law, it would make this seem less of a situation and more normal for us. “Oh, my,” she said, acting surprised at the uniform and badges. “I’m Donna. What’s going on?”

“Have a seat, please. Both of you.” We were all in the kitchen dining area, and all four of us took a seat. Brent started. “There are some irregularities, and some folks from the Atlanta police need to get some background. You’re Donna Curry, then?”

“I went by Curry in school. It made things easier. My last name is actually Grant. I haven’t been adopted or anything. Grant has always been my last name. Birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, and all that. School enrollment said Curry, but they knew I was a Grant by birth.”

“Got it. Donna, this is Detective John Parson of the Atlanta Police Department.” Donna nodded. “Go ahead, John. Charlie is a friendly. Trust me on that.”

“Thanks, Brent. OK, it seems like some foul play may have taken place with your brother’s death, Mr. Curry. It seems, from my view, anyway, that things are happening too fast, and money is flying too far and in quantities too large to point to anything else. I’ll tell you what we know, then if you can help us fill in any blanks, we’d appreciate it.

“Firstly, Donna’s mother is already shacked up with another guy. No problem from a legal sense, but it looks bad. No law against it, HOWEVER, secondly, the guy that ran that deadheading semi into your brother is out on bail and has a brand new shiny seventy-five-thousand-dollar deposit in his family checking account. His wife has cancer. Him being a truck driver and her being a waitress, it doesn’t look that good. Thirdly, Sherri Curry’s new boyfriend plays cards with the owner of the trucking company the driver worked for. And, fourth, an inventory of that company shows that truck, was the oldest on their lot, due for a rebuild, and again, was NOT pulling a trailer. Odd for that to happen, on the outskirts of town, the other side of town from the company, their service contractor, any load out warehouses, and their fuel source. Just doesn’t make sense to us. There was a half million-dollar policy and somehow over a hundred and a half large is already gone. The rest is still in an offshore account, but we were able to get the government there to help us out a bit. Seems they’re short on medical equipment on the island and we kind of worked a deal. Nothing we’ll admit to yet, though.

“Would either of you have anything to add to that information?”

“She cheated on Doug. She cheated on my Dad, too, come to think of it. She never said anything that I know of. I wouldn’t have protected her if she did. Mr. Parson, Sherri isn’t my mom. She’s my stepmother. I thought she was OK, but I found out she was cheating on my dad. I know she was cheating on Doug, not confirmed until after he was gone, but if I knew anything, I would have protected him, not her. My mother died, along with my little brother, in a hospital in Germany when I was like two or three. My grandparents raised me for a long time, then Sherri came along, and Grandpa passed away. Grandma got sick a little later, then she died, too. Sherri kept me when Dad was deployed, then when he didn’t come home, she got all his insurance money and figured she’d keep me. Even when she remarried, I was still a military dependent and had access to military base facilities and medical coverage. Anyway, I was just saying if I knew she was doing something bad to Doug, I would have called this one,” she pointed her thumb over at me, “so he could have done something about it.”

“Why would you have called Charlie, hon?” Parson asked her.

“Doug was blind to Sherri. She couldn’t do anything wrong. If I’d said she was doing anything bad, she would have taken him by his handle,” she giggled, “and made sure he didn’t believe me. I’m pretty sure anyway. As much as they argued, she always won the fights, and he always came back out of the bedroom with a satisfied look on his face. Charlie would have listened to me. He thought Sherri was my mother until just a couple of months ago, but still, I would have done it that way.”

“Well, that gives us even more circumstantial basis. Mr. Curry, anything you can think of?”

“No, John, just what Doug told me about her cheating on Donna’s father, the shoebox of letters, and such. Doug and I weren’t close. Nothing bad, though. We talked, occasionally, and I went to meet Sherri when they first got serious, then the wedding and reception, but as it wound up, I was really closer to Donna here than I was to Doug. We were family and all, but we never had anything in common. Like Donna said, I thought she was Sherri’s daughter until Sherri gave her some money and sent her out here to me.”

“Interesting. When did that happen?”

“Donna, wasn’t it six weeks after the funeral you showed up? I think I remember talking about that.” She nodded. “Nine weeks ago? Close to that anyway. Around the first of June.”

“OK. Thanks. If either of you remember anything else, please call us.” He handed me a card. “Do you mind if I ask why you came here, Donna?”

“Not at all. Sherri knew I had a thing for Charlie. She also needed me out of the way. Her new boy toy didn’t want me around, so she threw some money at me and told me to bail. I came here and told Charlie how I felt. I asked him to help me. He told me how he felt. Then he said yes. Then I said yes. There has been a lot of yeses lately.” She giggled.

Parson laughed. Brent chuckled.

“Make sure to let him out often, Donna, and brush him regularly. Charlie, you are a dog!”

We all laughed at that comment.

My saying “Bow wow” didn’t slow the mirth one iota.

“Thank you both. Please, if you remember anything, call me.” Parson touched his brow in a manner of a salute.

As they were walking out the door, Donna yelled, “Wait. Stay there. All of you.” She ran into the guest room and came back out holding her phone. “Look at these numbers, Mr. Parson. Maybe this is one of the trucking company guys. Sherry asked to borrow my phone one evening while Doug was down at the bar with his buddies.”

Parson looked at it and jotted down some numbers and such. “Four months ago. Huh! Hang on.” He used his cell phone to call someone, asked them to look it up, gave them the number and we watched as his eyebrows rose. He looked like he was scrolling down and then gave them another number, then a third. “You have a friend named Tina?” Donna nodded. “Donna, I hate to do this, but get any information you need off this phone. I can wait for a bit while you do. I’m going to have to take it as evidence. If Sherri was the only person you let use this phone, this ties her to both the employer, AND the driver…”

The gasp let loose by Donna was only overshadowed by my own. “Sherri had my brother murdered. Damn the bitch.” I hadn’t realized I’d said that outloud.

“Then she got Donna out of town so no one would look at her phone or her phone records. Almost clever. Almost,” Parson said.

Donna got the notepad off the kitchen counter and started jotting down names and numbers. She also wrote the names of some apps she was using. Games for the most part, but she could start them back up and maybe even continue where she left off.

“I’ll get you a new phone on my plan later today, baby, don’t even worry about it,” I told her. She tried to smile, but I could tell it was forced. It wasn’t about the phone. It was about Sherri and what may have happened. What probably happened. Parson painted a pretty clear picture.

Parson recorded her saying she loaned her stepmother the phone and about when it happened, then he continued. “That may put a lid on it, folks. We can hope. If we can turn any of them, we’re home free, but this may be enough in itself. A lot of folks in the legal profession say circumstantial evidence is just bullshit, but if you pile manure high enough and enough of it falls on you, it’ll do you in.

“It’ll be a while, but it looks like I’ll probably need both of you in Atlanta for court at some point. Donna as a fact witness and you, Mr. Curry, as a circumstantial witness what with your brother’s input. That shoebox may be something the prosecutor is interested in, too. We’ll see. Anyway, we’ll be in touch. Thank you both.” He shook my hand then took Donna’s in a small shake as well. Nice guy.

Brent mentioned getting out on the links soon, to which I adamantly agreed, then they all took off, the deputy that had been outside waiting for them in one car, and Brent and John Parson in the other car.

“Wow,” Donna said.

“Yeah. Wow. Come on.” I got dressed while she watched me and we went out to the truck, jumped in, and headed for town. “Let’s go get you a new phone. Afterwards, you can call all of your friends and let them know your new number.”

“All three of the girls. Cool. No rush, Charlie. I wasn’t Miss Popularity, and the only boys that tried to get to know me wanted in my knickers. I have three friends I want to get my new number to and that’s about it. The rest of what I wrote in the kitchen was scores for Cookie Blast, Bejeweled, and a couple of other games I like. I was pretty far along.” She looked at me and smiled. “Kind of like we will be, if things like this morning keep happening.”

“About that…” She interrupted me.

“If you say we’re going to proceed at my pace, I think I know that. I’ve seen that. I understand that. I’m fine. I appreciate you doing that. I don’t feel pressured. I feel more held back, but I understand, and love you even more for it. Oooops. I said it. Bad Donna. After this morning, it’s my intention that you won’t go completely without anymore. I think you said this morning was special for you. It was for me, too. I promise. Charlie, there are a megabatrillion things I can do, we can do, without us consummating a marriage before we want to, or more accurately before we’re ready. This morning was but one, or two, or three of those things, depending on what your outlook is. There are a lot more. I plan to use some of them to keep us interested in each other until things progress in our relationship. Oh, and don’t change anything on the web access router box thing. Everything is just the way it needs to be.” She grinned.

“If you don’t think I feel the same way, honey, you’d be wrong. I do. I’m afraid to say it. Two months. Three months. However long, using that word is dangerous. I will, though. I know I will. As far as all those other things, I can’t wait. Donna, I really do want this. Please let me know if you ever aren’t happy. That would really kill me.” The conversation ended just as we pulled up to the phone store. She squeezed my hand and smiled at me as we got out of the truck.

The lady there was a blast. She helped Donna pick out a new phone, similar to her old one, but generations newer. She was also able to, with Donna’s help logging in, get most of the information from the old account and downloaded to her new device. Contacts and settings, anyway. Cookie Jelly Blaster or whatever it was called, was a Donna problem, and she was on her own. The clerk and I laughed at the look on Donna’s face. One of mock horror. She laughed with us after she let us know how terrified she was of going through the games again.

The good news was she once again had a phone, and with it a new number. The bad news was for Sherri. If she called Donna, the Atlanta police would answer. Donna texted her friends, letting them know she had the new number and that everything was still going well. School was starting in less than a month, though, and she was a bit apprehensive about starting a new year, in a new school, without knowing anyone. Even though she’d be a senior, and not subject to upperclassmen’s antics, it still wasn’t ideal.

We were shopping at our local grocery when I ran into one of our town’s finer citizens, the mayor no less, with a young woman accompanying him.

“Charlie Curry, what the hell are you up to, young man? I haven’t seen you in ages. You’ve missed the last couple of Chamber meetings. Charlie, this is my daughter, Amy. Her mother ran off to Pennsylvania to be with family and left us behind.”

“Nice to meet you, Amy. This is my niece. Well, not really anymore. Roger and Amy Baker, this is my girlfriend, Donna Grant. She’s new to town. Amy, are you still in school, by chance?”

“Yes, Mr. Curry, I am. Senior year then I’m outa here. Leaving the Lou and heading to Mizzou! I hope.” She grinned. Donna giggled at the play on words. Amy held her hand out to shake with Donna. “Nice to meet you, Donna.”

“You as well, Amy. I’m starting my senior year, too. What did you mean, leaving the Lou?”

“The St. Louis area. All the ads these days are calling it ‘The Lou’. It just sounded good. I’m not much of a poet. I’m hoping to get into Mizzou based on Daddy’s money and my STEM scores, not my literary abilities, of which there are none.”

“So, I ain’t the only one what’s got that problem?” Amy laughed at Donna’s comment and shook her head. The girls started talking, making me feel wonderful, hearing a giggle or two, and leaving Roger and I to talk about golf, Chamber of Commerce meetings, and me missing the last two, whilst avoiding a certain buxom blonde that wants to have my children while emptying my wallet.

The blonde in question is a fairly recent graduate of UMKC Law School and came home to a very entitled, in her mind, lifestyle. Her father is a big-time lawyer in our little burg, getting a lot of business out of the city on trip and trap cases and such. He even advertises them that way. “Accident? Slip and Fall? Dial all sevens for Randy Hall. We’ll get you all the compensation you deserve.” Drove me nuts. Anyway, Diane Hall was not my cup of tea. Nothing worse than a gold digger that grew up with a silver spoon. Ackkk. She was beautiful and built like a brick shit house, and of course, always dressed to the nines in form fitting silk blouses, short pencil skirts, stockings, and heels. Yes, obviously she dressed like I would like to see my woman dressed, but… She was obnoxious. She was stuck up, conceited, and all the other traits of the head cheerleader up until just before the quarterback dumps her for the next one in line.

Only Diane never came down to earth. She probably kicks herself for ever dating Frank now, after his clear failure to launch, as they say, but… Whatcha gonna do. You pays your money and you takes your chances! Frank runs the most highbrow beauty salon down in St. Peters now, catering to the money in town. He’s self-admittedly as queer as a three-dollar bill, lives at home with his widowed mother, and is proud of both of those facts. We all love him. He really is a great guy. He just doesn’t want Diane touching him anymore. She probably feels the same way.

My attention was turned back to Roger. “Yes, Roger, as soon as we get settled, I’ll touch base with Occifer Brent and we’ll get a foursome together for the Chamber tournament. Promise.”

Roger laughed at the comment. We made fun of the Sheriff and called him Occifer Brent once in a while. He didn’t mind, too much. Roger said, “Great. Hey, gotta run.” He looked down at his cart. “Supplies for the cats so we can run off to PA to catch up with Annie. She had to go out early for a class reunion, but I couldn’t leave until our princess here finished some course she’s taking for college. Amy, come on, let’s go. Get Donna’s number and you all can talk later.”

I saw the girls trading numbers, smiling at each other, and already saying goodbye, right after they had met. In any case, it was completely fortunate. Now Donna will know someone when she starts school in August.

“Charlie, that was great. How lucky for me! You really are good luck, you know it?”

Just then, Diane Hall came around the corner, the click, click, click of her heels catching my attention. She looked up from the shopping cart she was pushing in front of her.

“Well, hello, handsome. Did you know I was here? Following me, maybe?”

“No, I didn’t and no I wasn’t, or this wouldn’t have happened.”

“What? Oh, you’re such a kidder. Charlie, darling, I’ve missed you. I wanted to sit with you at the last Chamber meeting, but I couldn’t find you, hon. I can’t seem to find your number anywhere, either. Is everything OK?”

Donna looked a bit upset, so I decided to have some fun.

“Oh, Diane, everything is perfect now, and I’m so glad to see you. This is my fiancée, Donna Grant. She just came in from Atlanta a few weeks ago and we’ve been so busy what with my brother’s passing and her trip up here, and the police and all that rigmarole. I’m so sorry. I’ll make sure to be at the next one and we’ll all sit together, OK? Donna wants to be involved with all my civic activities, so this will be wonderful. Donna, honeybunch, this is Diane Hall, an attorney here in town. Maybe you can ask her to help with the problems you’re having with your former stepmother. I’ll tell you how to contact her later. Nice to see you, Diane. We’ll certainly talk later. Come Donna, we need to get going. We’re running late.”

I took Donna’s hand and took off as fast as I could. Diane was still standing there with her mouth open, and as we walked away, I think I heard stammering. I think. It may have been gas. I know I upset her.

“Is that the woman that made you miss the meetings, Charlie? She’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s beautiful, Charlie. She could be a movie star. Not a model so much. Too much… Way too much up here,” Donna held her hands under her breasts and lifted them like they were huge or something. “Damn, how am I going to keep you happy with women like that out there?”

“Tell me you love me and wake up with me again. Diane is one of the worst people I know. She is pretty, even beautiful, I know, but she’s an absolute… Picture the mostest worstest terriblest meanest girl in school. Maybe the worst three of them. That’s Diane. In a nutshell. I was just telling Roger I was dodging the woman and around the corner she comes. Your lucky day. You met Amy. Cool. Not my lucky day, until I realized that I love you, and I want to keep you. What I told Diane is not false. It’s not true yet, but it’s not false. Soon, I want you to be what I told Diane you are.”

“Your fiancée?”

“Yes. In a word, yes.”

“Well, you did ask me to marry you. Uht! Hurry! Kiss me. She just came around the corner.” I took Donna in my arms and kissed her. This kiss was like the first really nice couple of kisses. I had just told her we had every intention of getting married. She was OK with it. She tapped my neck, then with her fingers and thumb, caressed it. I pulled back. I didn’t want to stop. “She’s gone. Kiss me like that again, Charlie. I love you. Please, please, be real.” I did, happily.

Donna advised me she was going to accompany me to the next chamber meetings, asking if I could help her decide on some shoes. She didn’t ask me to buy them, only to help pick them out, so of course I bought them. DSW has shoes for every occasion, and green kidskin sling back pumps were no exception. They matched another dress she kept from her mother’s wardrobe perfectly. It was similar to the one she wore years ago at the wedding, but a bit more conservative. This one had a back. I helped her zip it up just before we left for the luncheon, then as we were getting ready to leave the bedroom, I asked her to stop.

She turned to me, looking up in question. “Turn, please. Donna, I love you. I do. That dress is amazing on you, but you look a bit naked.”

“What? Why? I’m wearing hose, heels, panties, a bra, and this dress. I am not naked!”

I slipped a gorgeous gold jeweled necklace around her beautiful little neck and latched it. Her hand came up to feel what it was. She hadn’t even seen it yet when she turned, held my ears under her hands, and pulled me down to kiss me.

“Thank you,” she said, then turned to the dresser mirror. “Oh, my God, Charlie, they’re beautiful. Why… Oh, God.” Tears started running. She could tell they were real gems, evidently. It was an emerald and diamond necklace I found downtown at the jewelry store on sale. It was perfect for Donna and I would have paid whatever they wanted for it, but a guy special ordered it for his wife and she left him before it came in. He lost part of his deposit, since it was a special order, and I picked it up for about eighty percent of what it would have cost the poor guy. It appraised at twice what I paid for it, at a different jeweler. I don’t trust those guys much, so I had another one look it over after I bought it. It’s hard to trust some of them, what with gold seemingly always being on sale for sixty percent off. Anyway, it looked spectacular on her, and she loved it. I guess she did. If tears and smiles and sniffles are an indication, she liked it.

We saw Diane across the room, but she came nowhere near us. Donna was definitely the runner up for beauty queen in the place, but only in everyone else’s eyes, maybe. She was the most beautiful creature in the room as far as I was concerned, and most probably Diane would agree with me. As pretty as Diane was, she knew the woman on my arm was more than she was. More of everything. I could tell by the way she looked at me. She was wearing a look of utter defeat. It did not become her at all.

There was quite a bit of activity at the meeting, so after the late luncheon, a few groups of several committees met for a few hours to decide on some plans for downtown renewal efforts. I sat on one of those committees, as did Diane, so we stayed to participate, but Donna was at my side the entire time. The glares back and forth were ominous, but not for us. Donna had no intention of letting Diane think of me as anything more than an acquaintance.

When we left, it was Donna that took the adult role, though, and at the door as we were all leaving, she addressed Diane. “Good to see you again, Diane.”

One could tell Diane was flummoxed, and maybe a bit angry. “Yes, Donna.” She glanced at me. “Charlie.” Then she turned and walked away. Alone and without the normal plastic smile adorning her otherwise absolutely gorgeous face.

“Jesus, that woman is beautiful. If she did something with her attitude, and wore a minimizing bra, she could have any man she wanted.”

I had to agree. “I know, honey, but she just feels like if she wants it, it’s hers. The problem is, she wants things that do not want her. She’s gone through my entire circle of friends, and she doesn’t want to step down to a lower circle. The higher one left town for medical school and never came back. I think they married each other anyway. That’s what the rumor mill says. She needs to go into the city to a seminar or something and suck some new blood out of some poor soul’s neck downtown. It ain’t gonna happen around here.”

Donna laughed at the insinuation, and my take on it.

Life changed for me that night.

“I don’t think any woman has felt more wanted and more desired than I did this afternoon, Charlie. I saw what you did. I saw what you wanted me to do for you. I loved it, by the way. I feel marvelous dressed like this. I feel worldly, feminine, womanly, pretty, even. Completely and utterly your chattel. Fun word.”

That was a preview of Life With Donna. To read the rest purchase the book.

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