Chapter 1

I was 19 years old that summer. I had graduated high school and was trying to find work to move out of my parent’s house and begin life on my own. But work wasn’t easy to find at the time and so I still lived with my mom in the house I was raised in. Dad and mom had been divorced for a few years now and so it was just the two of us. Fortunately (or maybe he planned it this way) he waited until I was in high school to leave so most of my “raising” had been done.

To earn a little money and help out with the family finances, I had begun working around the neighborhood doing odd jobs for the neighbors – it was about the only “work” I could find. And I was pretty handy with tools so I became the neighborhood handyman.

We lived in a nice upscale neighborhood – it wasn’t the “rich” part of town by any means, but it wasn’t the projects either. I guess you could say people in the neighborhood fell in the upper middle class. There were a couple of doctors, an accountant, and others who made a pretty good living.

Across the street from us lived Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, a nice couple who were always really friendly and said hello to us every time we passed each other. Mr. Andrews was in commercial real estate and Mrs. Andrews used to work as a fashion model before she had their son Brian. Brian had gone away to college the last couple of years and Mrs. Andrews just puttered around the house now.

One day I stopped by the Andrews wanting to see if they needed any work done. I noticed their grass had gotten a little long and I was hoping to earn a few dollars cutting it for them. I walked up to the door of their large two-story house and rang the doorbell.

“Hello Bobby, what can I do for you?” she asked, answering the door. Mrs. Andrews was wearing a simple gray dress that had a full button front. She had the top three buttons undone and the dress opened up revealing an incredible pair of tits. The rest of the dress fit her like a second skin. The dress had elbow-length sleeves and the bottom hem was just above her knees. It was a simple yet classy look ... just like her.

“Hi Mrs. Andrews, I was just wondering if there was anything around here I could help you with. I saw the grass is starting to get long and I know Mr. Andrews was always really careful not to let it get long. And if there are any other chores you’d like help on, I can do just about anything.

She looked out the door past me. “Yes, the lawn does look a bit shabby. I guess Mr. Andrews hasn’t been able to get to it. He’s been working a lot lately and just hasn’t had the time. So what would you charge to cut the grass front and back and edge along the sidewalk?” she asked.

I knew that money wasn’t a problem for her – judging by the size of the house and the Beemer I knew they drove, the Andrews weren’t hurting for money. But I didn’t want to lose a job and possibly a repeat job so I quoted them a figure that I thought would be low enough to secure the job and not waste my time.

“How does $35.00 sound?” I said. They had a pretty large front yard and the back was good sized too, even with their pool, so I felt it was a fair price.

“Thirty-five dollars, eh? All right, that sounds like a fair price,” she smiled. Mrs. Andrews had a twinkle in her eyes every time she smiled and I liked to see her smile.

“Okay I’ll be right back then,” I said and ran back across the street to get our lawnmower and string trimmer. I put the string trimmer in an old garden cart we had as well as a plastic garbage can and a good handful of plastic trash bags. I was all set to go to work and I pulled the cart behind me and pushed the lawnmower ahead as I crossed the street, thankful I didn’t have to go far!

I set everything in the driveway since I knew Mr. Andrews was working and wouldn’t be home until late that afternoon – I’d be done and gone long before that! I got straight to work, starting with cutting the grass in front. I was hoping to get this job done and maybe a couple more if I was lucky ... that would make for a profitable day for me!

I got the front yard cut and edged and it looked good if I do say so myself. I was working on the backyard where there was less grass to cut but more obstacles with the pool back there. The pool was set into their low deck – only about three feet off the ground with the pool in the center and most of the pool set into the ground.

The deck had a few footings I needed to trim around as well as some steps at one end. There was also a sidewalk that led to the attached garage door in the back that I would need to edge. The Andrews didn’t have a fence in the front but they had a big privacy fence in the backyard that I needed to trim along to finish the job.

I had cut the grass and was working on trimming along the deck. I still had to edge the sidewalk and trim along the fence when Mrs. Andrews came out to check on my progress.

“How’s it coming, Bobby?” she asked, standing near the edge of the deck.

“I’m doing fine Mrs. Andrews. I just have a little more trimming around the deck and then I need to edge the sidewalk and go along the fence with this trimmer,” I said.

“Oh my, it certainly is warm out today!” she said, fanning herself with her hand.

It was pretty warm out that day and working like I was, I had sweated through my t-shirt. I didn’t notice it until she said something but when I did, I took it off, using it to wipe my forehead.

I caught Mrs. Andrews eyeing me with an approving look. “Would you like to take a break and come inside for some iced tea?” she asked.

“That sounds good, actually. It will give my trimmer a chance to cool down so I can put more gas in it and finish up,” I said.

I put the trimmer up on the deck where it could cool down while I went inside with Mrs. Andrews to do the same.

Or that was what I thought...

“Have a seat, hon, and I’ll get our tea,” she said as we entered through her sliding glass back door. I walked over to the sofa but before I sat down, I looked at my clothes. I was pretty sweaty and grubby considering the nice furniture so I opted to remain standing. Mrs. Andrews came in a minute or two later to see me still standing.

“Um, I didn’t want to mess up your nice sofa ... I’m kinda, you know,” I said a bit flustered by my looks in such a nice house. “You have a really nice place here Mrs. Andrews.”

“Well thank you, Bobby, sweetie. “We try to keep it nice ... we entertain often here and have to keep up appearances,” she said with that trademark twinkle in her eyes. “And it’s Martha from now on – no more of that Mrs. Andrews stuff ... it makes me sound like an old lady!”

“Okay ... Martha.” The name sounded funny in my mouth, but if she wanted me to call her by her first name, I wasn’t going to argue.

“Now come over here and sit while we drink our tea and chat a bit,” she said, patting the sofa seat next to her.

I sat down next to her and took a sip of her sweet tea. It was very good – but then she was a Southern Girl!

“So how are you doing raising money for your car?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m getting there. But I have a long way to go. I’m hoping to have it by the time I start school this fall but unless I start getting more jobs, I don’t think I’ll make it,” I said.

“Well, don’t give up hope, I’m sure there are things around here I can find for you to help out with. Mr. Andrews is always too busy working and when he is home, he’s too tired to do much around the house,” she sighed. Looking back at it now, I can see that her words had a double meaning. He was too busy to tend to the house ... or to her!

“Anything I can do to help, Martha, I am ready to do. What do you need done around here?” I asked naively.

Martha saw the opening I had blindly left her, but she didn’t feel I was ready quite yet for what she had in mind. So she bypassed the opportunity and just said “Well let me look around and think about it for a bit. I’m sure I can come up with something,”

We finished our tea, still chatting. “So how is your mom doing these days? I keep meaning to come by but I never seem to get over there,” she said.

“She’s doing fine ... she working is about it. Thank goodness she has her job, I can’t seem to find much myself!” I said.

“Well, money is tight for a lot of people these days. So are you still seeing Diane Baker? You two used to be so close you couldn’t see daylight between you!” she said.

“No, she went off to college. I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment,” I said. There, I stepped right into her trap – all she had to do was snap it closed and collect her victim!

“No girlfriend? I don’t believe that for a minute! A strong good-looking and obviously hard-working man like you – I’ll bet you have them lined up for a block!” she said.

“No, not really. I’m kinda waiting until I have a job. It’s kinda hard to date without any money! Plus I’d like to get my own place too” I said.

“That’s smart ... a woman likes to know she will be taken care of,” she said. I noticed that she had put her hand on my thigh, but I figured it was just a friendly gesture and didn’t think anything of it.

After a little while longer chatting and visiting, I got up. “Well Martha, this has been nice and thank you for the tea, but I need to get back out there and finish up,” I said.

“Such a conscientious worker! Most kids these days are all about starting the job, but when they get tired, they just go home and forget about finishing things,” she said.

“Not me. I don’t stop until the job is done and done right,” I said. Yep, once again I left myself wide open!

“Well, I like a man who finishes things. It shows that you care about your work.” And once again I didn’t catch the double meaning in her words ... how naive can a guy be!

I went outside, none the wiser and started back up on Martha’s lawn. I looked back at the house for some reason and I saw Martha watching me from behind the sliding glass doors. I continued working after that but I would glance up and see her still watching me work. Once when I looked, I noticed she was biting her fingernail. After about a half hour, I was done. I put the string trimmer on the deck to cool before putting it away and went in to see Martha and tell her I was done.

“Martha? I’m done with your lawn,” I called out. She came downstairs and I saw her hair was a bit out of place and she was breathing heavier than she should have. I thought at first she was doing some housework.

“You want to check my work and see if you like it?” I asked.

“No that won’t be necessary, hon, I know you did a good job.”