Chapter 1

My name is Rich Griffith. My dad and I have lived on the family farm for as long as I could remember. I had been lonely growing up, with only the few hired hands and my dad around to keep me company. The nearest neighbor was over 2 miles away. So that killed any thought of visiting any friends' houses.

My father, Frank, raised me by himself for as long as I could remember. I'm not certain what happened to my mother. I asked Dad what happened to her, but all he could ever do is cry when I brought her up. I finally just let it go. Not having any other family members that I knew so I would have to let Dad tell me when he was ready.

I had just turned 14 when my life started to change. Dad decided that he needed some company.

"Rich, we need to have a talk."

"What's up Dad?"

"Well, there are going to be some changes around here soon."

"What kind of changes?"

"Well, I have been seeing a woman that I met about a year ago."

"Oh," I replied in a depressed tone.

"I have asked her to marry me. We decided to get married next month."

"So soon?"

"She will be joining us for dinner tonight. She will also be bringing her two daughters along as well."

"Why haven't I met her already?"

"She's not from around her. She lives three towns away."

"So are we moving to town?"

"No. They will be moving in with us here. She lost her job when the local plant closed a few months ago. She doesn't have anything there for her to stay for."

"So I'm going to get a new step-mother and her evil daughters."

"Not exactly. Elizabeth is a wonderful person. Her daughters, Heather and Emily are also very sweet too. They are also about your age. I think that the three of you will get along fine."

"I don't know Dad. I still don't know what happened to Mom. What did happen to her?"

Dad seemed to get very uncomfortable with this question. I could tell that he didn't want to answer it.

"Well, it's kind of difficult to..."

"Dad, please just tell me what happened to my mother. I would like to know why I have lived this long without one."

"Ok, I guess you do deserve to know. It happened when you were very young. You were two at the time. Your mom had been going into town every few days to visit with her friends. Normally, she would get home just after 10:00pm when she was out with them. The last time, she never returned home. The next morning, I started trying to find her. I called all of her friends and only one of them was home. She didn't know anything either. She got stuck working late and couldn't go out with them.

It was later that night when I finally found out. The police came by to talk to me. It seems that your mother decided to have some fun. In that fun, she tried to buy drugs as well as sell herself to an undercover officer. When they finally busted the party, your mother was very high and in the middle of having sex with someone she sold herself to. She was having sex to support her drug habit."

"Dad, how can you expect me to believe this?"

Dad got up and went over to his desk. He opened the locked drawer and pulled out some papers before he returned and handed them to me.

"You will find the full police report as well as the newspaper articles. She went to jail for ten years. I guess they found quite a stash of drugs in her purse as well as the prostitution charge. I was able to get a divorce as well as full custody of you."

I read the paperwork as fast as I could. I realized that Dad was telling me the truth. I could understand why he had trouble telling me.

"Do you know where she is now?"

"She should be getting released any time now. She might even have already been released. She has never tried to contact me since the divorce settlement and I never tried either."

"I'm sorry Dad. I had to know what happened before I could accept anyone else."

"It's alright. You deserved to know. Listen, Liz and her daughters will be here in a few hours. You need to get cleaned up before they get here."

"Ok Dad."

A few hours later, I was dressed up spiffy. I was just helping Dad with the final touches for dinner when the doorbell rang.

"Could you get that Rich? My hands are just a bit tied up at the moment."

"Sure Dad."

I went to the door and opened it. What I found on the other side, took my breath away. She stood about 5' 5", slim with dark brown hair. She also had a very nice rack on her as well. It took me just a moment to gather my composure so I could speak.

"You must be Elizabeth?"

"Yes, and you must be Rich. It's nice to finally meet you. This is Heather and Emily."

"Why don't you come in and make yourselves comfortable?"

"Thanks."

I took a moment to check out the two girls as they walked by. Both of them were very attractive. The older one appeared to snear at me upon passing. The younger girl gave a smile that could melt steel.

I followed them inside and led them to the dining room and was gentlemanly as I held their chairs before they sat down.

"Dad will have dinner served shortly. I will be right back."

I walked into the kitchen to find Dad just getting the last of it done. Dad may work on a farm, but he sure knows his way around a kitchen. I helped him bring the serving dishes out to the dining room to our awaiting guest before taking my place at the table next to Emily.

Dinner was enjoyable. I could see why Dad wanted to marry Elizabeth. It certainly didn't take me very long to get to like her. She was fun to be around. Emily seemed to take after her mother. She could carry her end of any conversation and was not afraid of any jokes, even if she was the butt of the joke. Heather seemed put off. It was evident to see that she didn't want to be here at all.

I discovered that Emily was the baby. She had just turned 13 about a month ago. She seemed happy for her mother to have finally found someone to be with. Heather is 15 and not happy at all. I was having trouble reading her.

I was noticing that Dad and Liz seemed to want a few minutes alone. I was always able to read him, so when I made the announcement that I was going to give the girls the grand tour, I noticed him smile a 'thanks.'

The house was quite large. Much bigger than Dad or I needed. There were five bedrooms and three baths in all. With only 2 of us, most of this space was wasted except for that one time of the year when Dad's friend Dave and his wife came to visit with their kids. Dad's room was the only one that was downstairs. The other four were upstairs as were two of the bathrooms. Each bathroom had a door to two of the bedrooms.

"Well, you guys may as well pick out your new rooms since it looks like my dad and your mom are going to get married."

"I don't want to," Heather replied. "I want to stay right where we are."

"You know we can't do that. Make the most of the bad situation Heather," Emily responded.

I gave Emily a questioning look as we entered the first room. She read it quite quickly.

"Mom lost her job 3 months ago when her company folded up. Her unemployment benefits are running out. Your father made the offer of getting married to help us out since we are about to be evicted anyway. Since they were already seeing each other, she figured it was worth the chance we are taking. I'm surprised you didn't know about that."

"I'll be honest, until a few hours ago, I didn't know my dad was seeing anyone at all. This is just a bit of a shock to me."

"You didn't know? Jeez, Heather thinks she has it tough. She doesn't want to leave her friends."

"That would explain her being so grumpy."

"That and the thought of working on a farm is driving her up a wall too. She hates dirt."

"Oh, then she will just love it here." That comment had us both laughing.

Heather didn't surprise me any by choosing the room closest to the stairs. Emily totally shocked me by taking the room that adjoined my bathroom.

"Why would you want to share a bathroom with him?"

"Why not? For the last four years I have shared everything with you. I figured that I would give you some space."

"Well thanks."

Heather started down the stairs all proud of herself. Emily turned toward me before commenting further.

"Besides, she's a pig. I don't want her stealing my stuff anymore. I hope you won't start wearing my clothes."

"I don't think that you have anything to worry about in that area Emily."

"Good. Oh, if you do find that you need to start sniffing my panties, just ask."