Chapter 1: Her Ex: The Flounder And The Flight

It happened about a year after Rob and Brook were married.

Rob remembers the day that Trey came to him, wanting to talk.

"Just the two of us," Trey said. "Hell, let's have a cold one."

Trey was Brook's ex husband and it was a sticky situation in a way. Trey and Brook had been married for five years before the divorce and had dated in high school before that. Rob had known them the whole time even if he was a few years older. It was a small town and everybody knew everybody.

Most folks around quietly acknowledged Brook's marriage to Rob was a "rebound wedding" on Brook's part and Rob didn't deny it. A year isn't very long between marriages but Brook was such a knockout Rob wasn't going to pass her up. The fact that Trey and Rob knew each other pretty well made it a little dicey. Not to mention Travis.

Travis was Trey's two-year-old son but they hadn't spent enough time around each other for Trey to know him. It wasn't a nasty divorce by any means but there was certainly deep pain. Brook had caught Trey having an affair while she was pregnant and turned off the marriage like a light switch.

Rob actually felt sorry for old Trey. He was a damned good old boy that had made one mistake, one quick bad error in judgment. He had made the mistake of falling for a great body while he had a pregnant wife. There was no surviving it.

Then came the casual meeting. Rob was concerned. Was it about Travis? Probably not. He was doing a pretty good job at being a dad and Trey had stayed well out of the way.

Money? Rob hoped not. All of them were struggling.

As it was, money was exactly the subject of their meeting but not what Rob thought.

After thirty minutes of small talk Trey twirled a beer in his hand and finally looked at Rob.

"Hey, man. I know it hasn't been easy for any of us. You guys are fighting from payday to payday just like me, aren't you?"

Rob laughed quietly.

"Hell, who makes it to payday any more?"

Trey laughed with him. Trey was a diesel mechanic and a damned good one, regardless of his age. He had come from a generation of mechanics and had rebuilt a tractor engine when he was twelve.

"Rob, I know it's a little awkward between the two of us. I'm not saying it's bad, just awkward at times, what with Travis being there and both of us having kin around."

"Hell, it's okay between you and me though, isn't it?" Rob asked. He looked at Trey a little taken aback. What was this about?

"Well, I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you taking care of Brook and Travis. I think you do a hell of a job, maybe better than I would."

"Man, I appreciate that. I really do." Rob said. He was relieved but still didn't know where this was going.

"Look, I've been offered a job in Iraq making big money and I'm gonna take it. Shit, I can make more over there in a two year contract than I can squeeze out of these farmers in six."

Rob was floored.

"Man, do you really want to do that?" He thought that was pretty radical.

Trey smiled.

"I'm leaving next Friday. It's all done. Passports, visas, the whole thing. I just didn't want to tell anybody but you first. You've got to take care of them."

Rob looked at him for a long time then extended his hand.

"I got'em, Buddy," he said softly.

And that was that. Not another word was spoken and Rob never saw Trey again before he left.

He knew one thing, though. Trey Williams was still in love with Brook. No doubt about it. He already knew that Brook was not entirely over Trey and probably never would be but it was something he could life with.

About a month later they received the first check from Trey. They were floored! They could live on the check alone but they didn't. Instead they played everything very conservatively and caught themselves up financially. Half of Trey's check went into an account for Travis.

That first time the check arrived in the mail Brook was home alone. She opened the envelope and stared at the check for a long time, tears filling her eyes a she thought about the past with Trey.

Even though very traumatic for her, Brook's divorce from Trey had been very quiet, totally without confrontation. Looking back on it she realized that maybe she had overreacted, had acted hastily in her hurt. She had caught him in an affair. Not a long involved one but more a quick one that was detected almost from inception. Trey was too much of a "one woman man" to be able to pull off something like that without detection and he should have known. But looking back now was twenty-twenty hindsight. At the time there had been no forgiving.

It was later, both before and after she entered this very happy and exciting union with Rob, that Brook second-guessed herself about Trey. She had loved him very much for a long time. Maybe she should have made herself go through a cooling off period, giving her a chance to rethink their situation before immediately starting procedures as she had done. Especially with a baby and all their families being involved.

But that's not what happened and they all had to live with what did happen.

And now all this money. The two of them were the financial recipients of a guilty, repenting ex husband. Trey was truly sorry for his mistake and both Rob and Brook knew that. There had already been enough hurt. They needed to move on, making adjustments with life as it happened.

Testing The Water

Then, before it seemed possible, the first twelve months were up and Trey was back in town on his month long mid tour leave.

By then Travis had accepted Rob and called him dad. Having a new "Dad" arrive in his life was understandably confusing. But each of the three adults involved were determined that it was going to happen and that they were going to do this well.

The visits started slowly, not much more than Trey visiting their house each evening and playing with Travis for a couple of hours. By design Brook always made sure Trey had dinner with them. It all went perfect and within a few days Trey was leaving the house with a big diaper type bag as if he were an old pro. Most of the time they just went to visit Trey's Mom and Dad so it was an easy visit.

But each visit Rob also couldn't miss the deep pain within Trey concerning Brook. He didn't miss the look and attitude of Brook, either. Always, without fail, she went into a sort of soft funk after the visits. What Rob was actually detecting was not just a deep sympathy that Brook felt toward Trey but more than a little guilt that she was part of it.

The second week Trey was home Rob had to work late on Monday. He routinely worked late into the night with no notice and that night told Brook that he wouldn't be home until after midnight. Normally he was right on time with these things but they didn't have a part they needed and it was only about nine o'clock when he left work.

When he got home he was surprised to see Trey's car still there. When Rob was home Trey had always come and gone long before this, never keeping Travis after dark. Caught between curiosity and nowhere else to go, Rob drove a block down and parked in the driveway of an empty house. As he walked back toward home he started to second-guess his sneaking in like this. If he were accidentally detected not only would she be pissed but also Trey wouldn't come back.

Silently, in the darkness, Rob slipped around the side of their house and through a very squeaky chain link fence gate. He cringed, wondering if they might have heard it. They lived in a modest house in an older neighborhood and had the fence in place to keep the kid in. Their combination dining and living room was at the back of the house, separated from the back patio with huge glass windows and a sliding glass door that were almost never covered. Rarely was the door even closed in decent weather.

With it being dark, Rob could easily see in without them seeing him. Brook had waited until they had Travis in bed before offering Trey dinner. He was sitting next to Brook at the table and everything seemed to be going normal. Rob decided that he was not going to intrude and would instead go have a cup of coffee at the diner and ride out the evening. But he stood for a while watching them first.

Brook was wearing a pair of loose fitting shorts and an old tee shirt. Even dressed down the way she was she looked good. Brook may not have been the prettiest girl in high school but she had the best body. Her dark hair may have not been great but she kept it cut short and it looked good. She was pretty but Rob admitted that her real assets were from the neck down.

My god the woman had a body! Absolutely the tightest ass Rob had ever seen sitting on top of legs that could have been a model's. And he loved her tits... firm, jutting peaches just aching to be eaten!

After a while, Rob started noticing that Trey was not only constantly touching her leg with his, but every now and then was putting his hand under the table and brushing her leg. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to it, apparently enjoying the night. With the windows open, he was close enough to actually follow their idle conversation concerning Travis, of which he had no interest. What did interest him and kept him from leaving was what was going on under the table.

Rob's interest turned to anticipation as he continued to spy on them. How long had this been going on and was she going to make any move to stop it? As he stood there Trey's touches became more brazen. The "brushing" became frequent lingering touches. Finally, he gently placed his hand on her knee and left it there. Rob suspected he had been encouraged by Brook's lack of response to his foraging touch. He knew that he would have been. Finally, she acknowledged the intrusion and put her hand under the table, gently moving his hand away from her.

Rob was frozen with the events unfolding in front of him and all thoughts of leaving were definitely gone. In a perverse way, he thought to myself, "What were the chances I would ever get to see them alone like this?" After all, this was not just a stranger in her house.

As a matter of fact Rob had often wondered about Brook and Trey's sex life before the divorce. Trey had bedded this woman every night for almost five years and Rob was sure there had been plenty of sex before the marriage. When he could get her in a certain after sex mood Brook would talk about it a little. What he got out of it was that Brooks sex life with Trey was pretty good. Good enough that at times he felt a little pressure to perform.

So as he watched this Rob felt his heart rate increase and he was breathing harder. Out of the sky blue here was sort of a blast from the past!

He gave this to Trey; he didn't give up. Even as Brook continually brushed his hand away, he casually continued to search for her under the table. She pushed his hand away a number of times before she finally moved her leg over a little to try to escape him. That didn't work either and after a while she gave in and allowed his hand to stay on her knee. Even though he made no attempt to go any higher, Rob started to shake a little and could definitely feel the anticipation. Instead of being upset he found it strangely exciting.

So did Trey and Brook, each in a different way.

Trey was starting to mentally sweat a little. He had thought this over very carefully and decided to test the waters at least some. He felt the only thing he had to lose was possibly a few hours of visitation. He guessed there was little chance she would mention it to Rob.

"Come to me, baby," he thought. "Don't act like you're not feeling it."

He had dreamed of this, had fantasized it so many times this past year, he wasn't going to let it go easily. All he had hoped for was just the right circumstance, not an open opportunity but instead just a ray of light! Just exactly how far would she allow him to take it tonight? How would she react to his calculated advances?