Chapter 2

The next time I saw Millie was three days later when she was cutting her grass. Cutting grass right is work but watching Millie cut grass is a pleasure. She was wearing a pair of tight purple short-shorts, a black sports bra and a pair of tennis shoes. She worked fast behind a gas powered push mower. I was going to finish my edging and stuff and blow off the driveway when I saw her. She didn't see me, she was fully focused on what she was doing. Her arm was out of the sling, which surprised me. Okay, I was going to finish my edging but I ended up watching Millie and pretended to be working on the line feed on my string trimmer. God she was beautiful and fit too. Damn I thought, Flyboy sure is a lucky guy. I started to go over there, but waited to see how long it would take her to notice that she had an audience of one. She never noticed until she was finished and ready to put up the mower. When she did notice, she waved. She waved and I waved and then I went back to the task at hand. She finished putting up her mower and then went into her house.

I didn't blame her, it was hot and she had to be exhausted. I thought about her and thought about her almost perfect petite curves while I finished edging and trimming my grass. I finished edging and was almost finished trimming when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I jumped, killed the trimmer and turned around to see a smiling Millie standing behind me. She had a bottle of water in her hand, which she gave me, and told me that I shouldn't be working so hard after a head injury. I smiled and took the water trying to think of something snappy in response. Not thinking of anything I drained half the bottle of water and told her thank you. I noticed that she was still wearing the sports bra and shorts combination. I also noticed that the sweat from her fast-paced cutting had completely soaked both. I also realized that these were actually more conservative than they looked across the street and looked to be some sort of a running outfit.

I said, "That was some workout you were giving yourself with the mower a bit ago."

Millie smiled, "I thought somebody was watching, actually I saw you out of the corner of my eye but when I start something I like to keep up the pace and get it done. I burn more energy that way and it's good exercise."

I squinted up at the sun and said, "Well to be honest, you wore me out just watching you. At my age I have to take it a little slower. I like to finish something once I start but I've found out over the years that some things are better done slowly. Besides if I worked at your speed and used energy like you did I would end up in the hospital again. How about you and I take a load off, out back on my patio? I have some cold beer and a shady spot we can sit and talk if you want."

She accepted and I hung my trimmer up in the garage and we went around through the gate to my pool area in the back. The pool is screened in and I have a patio set with umbrella, and a couple of lounge chairs that match around the pool. After picking up two beers from my mini-fridge I offered her one as I sat down on one of the lounge chairs. The beer was an "Ultra" beer and she looked at the label and smiled.

Reacting to her smile I patted my slightly overweight belly and smiled back. She looked at me with surprise and said, "I didn't mean anything like that. I was just surprised that you drink the same beer that I do. I mean Rob teases me about drinking a flyweight beer as he calls it. I tell him he's a beer snob."

"I take it that Flyboy is Rob?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's him, but I don't want to talk about him. I get mad every time I think about him. He is so eaten up with his career. I don't think I will ever be as important to him as his precious career."

"I see. Well it's a fact of military life. I mean you are either married to your career or you get passed over for someone who is. It's a hard life and I'm glad I'm away from it. It won't get any better for you. Here at least he can come home every night, when he gets assigned to sea duty he will be gone for six to nine months out of every year and like this when he is home. It doesn't make for a close family life."

Millie said, "Sounds like you've been there. How did your wife stand it."

I looked at her, remembering and said, "It was rough. I didn't realize how rough until I retired. It wore her out and I found out that we lost something during all that time that we never made up. When the cancer came it seemed like she didn't have the strength to continue on."

Millie looked at me with concern and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's good to talk about it. We had a good life, just not the best life we could have had. It takes a strong woman to be a military wife and not all women have that type of strength. You are just getting started and you need to decide if that is what you want; if you love him enough to make the sacrifices you will have to make."

Millie looked deep into my eyes and something unsaid passed between us. She finished her beer and looked at me smiling. "That pool looks nice. I love to swim. Maybe you could invite me over for a swim sometime. I guess I should get back now. Rob is coming home this afternoon and it wouldn't do for him to find me with a strange man." She winked at me during the last statement.

"I'm sure that if I had a beautiful girl friend I would feel the same way. Feel free to come over any time you want to swim. I use the pool almost every day and it is really refreshing, especially after working in the yard."

"I'll take you up on that. Thanks for everything, the beer, the conversation and the invite." She came over to me, stood on her tip toes, took hold of my shoulders and gave me a chaste kiss on my lips. Looking me in the eyes she said, "That was for saving my life and being so nice. I hope we can become good friends."

Smooth tongued devil that I am, I replied, "Me too," and blushed, so much for being Mr. Cool. I watched her walk back towards her house, giving me a wave after she had crossed the street. I shut the gate and just stood there, smiling, running my fingers across my lips where her lips had been.

The next time I saw Millie, she was with Rob working in their front yard. I was busy at the time weeding my front bed. Millie didn't notice me but when I looked over I noticed that Rob was staring at me. He waved and went back to putting mulch around his bushes. I thought it was strange that after all that had happened, he had never spoken to me. I mean, Millie had been profuse with her thanks but Rob had never said anything. It was unusual enough for me to think about it, which I did as I went back to my weeding.

Over the next several weeks I saw Millie several times but we were each busy with our own yards, so other than coming and going or an occasional wave we were back to the way we were before everything happened. Then early one Friday morning, things changed again.

I came out of the garage in my car intending to head to the grocers for my weekly shopping. I had my list and was watching out for neighborhood toddlers, who sometimes wandered out into the street. I backed into the street and glanced toward Rob and Millie's house before I pulled off. My mouth dropped as I saw Millie sitting in the grass near the curb with her face buried in her hands. I could hear that she was crying. I quickly pulled my car back into my garage and walked across the street.