Chapter 1

Paul Akers is a divorced father of two: a daughter, Melanie, who lives in Wisconsin, and a son, Jason, who has a home in a suburb of Chicago. He lives in Cleveland so he does visit each of them at times, they're both grown, he's fifty-one, after all, and Melanie's twenty-five and Jason is twenty-seven.

Paul is still working, of course, still has some years before retirement, and currently has five weeks of vacation which he always spends visiting his children.

This time, he went to see Jason, who'd wanted him to come for a prolonged visit, so he made it for two weeks. His son said he'd made some friends in his neighborhood and that he wanted his father to meet them. He's in a new home, one that he bought since his dad had last visited, so they were both doubly looking forward to the visit.

Paul finished up early on a Friday to begin driving and got there about seven o'clock that evening.

Jason eagerly answered the door and threw a hug around his dad, helping him in with his suitcase and showing him back to his room.

"How was the drive, typical Friday commute?" Jason asked.

"Nah, not bad, really, one tie-up for a bit but otherwise, sailed right through. Now, show me around, this looks nice."

So, Jason began a room-by-room tour for his father, telling him how good mortgage rates were right now, that he'd gotten a really good deal on this house right before it was scheduled for foreclosure.

When they hit the kitchen, Jason fixed them each a sandwich, he was not much of a cook, it seemed, and poured each of them a glass of red wine, a Merlot from Washington State. Then they continued the tour and finally settled in the den with the rest of the bottle of wine.

"So you really did well, Jason, very well, indeed. Nice house and it looks like a nice neighborhood."

"Very nice, I've already made some friends and you'll get to meet them. In fact, tomorrow, you're invited next door for supper, I'll be in Chicago at a meeting that I just couldn't get out of."

"Oh, are your next-door neighbors nice?"

"She, Dad, her name is Linda Jameson. I've gotten to know her pretty well, her husband was in the service, one of those who didn't come home. But, she's not wrapped up in all that, I really think you'll like her. I like her a lot."

"Well, I'll need to do a little wine shopping and get some flowers. This, now, isn't like a date, right?" Paul asked wondering to himself of his son might just be playing matchmaker.

"Oh, no, it's just that we've become friends and when she heard that I couldn't be home tomorrow night, she offered to feed my poor, starving father."

"Well, that's certainly an act of kindness," he told his son and they went on to other things, catching each other up on jobs and news of extended family and such.

Paul did pop out the next afternoon to buy two bottles of wine, a Cab and a Pinot Grigio, to be ready for whatever Mrs. Jameson would be serving and made certain he had the white nicely chilled.

He also bought a pretty flower arrangement to thank her for her effort to please a total stranger reminding him of the Tennessee WIlliams' line about 'the kindness of strangers.'

He was due at six and dressed in a nice, casual polo shirt and chinos, took the wine and flowers and went next door and rang the bell.

There are things that Paul doesn't know about Linda Jameson, nor about his son, Jason, nor about the two of them together. Now, you're thinking there may be more to this than meets the eye and you would be so right.

Linda Jameson is forty-two and has been widowed for just over five years so the feelings of loss have lessened, though, we all know they truly never go away. But she has tried hard to live her life more fully, especially after the handsome young man bought the house next door.

She'd seen him out in the driveway, only a week or so after he'd moved in, he was carrying in groceries so she decided to go and introduce herself.

They seemed to hit it off right away, even though she was fifteen years older, they both felt like they'd known each other for ages.

She invited him to supper a few nights from then, a Friday, and made a nice but not too fancy meal. They had a fun time, laughing, telling stories from their growing up, just having a great time.

Then, at the end of the evening, he was telling her how nice everything was, that he wanted to take her out for dinner to repay her since he was less than a stellar chef, and, at the door, they embraced in a nice hug. Except for one thing ... they kissed. Not exactly on purpose, neither of them thought about it beforehand, it just happened between two people who were getting to like one another.

The kiss ended as they stood there, looking rather puzzled at each other, both having feelings they were surprised by, then each head leaned forward and their lips met once again, opened and they kissed rather more passionately.