Chapter 1

When I bought my new house, I figured I would have the time to mow the yard and do all the things that a new homeowner does. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. I didn't buy some huge mansion with acres of yard to take care of. I searched around for a while before I decided on the neighborhood and the house. It was an out of the way subdivision, right on the edge of town. It was quiet because the access street was a dead end, so there wasn't any through traffic to worry about.

I picked an empty lot that had tons of trees on it and contracted it out to have something really nice built. I specified a few details with the architect and the price was agreed on. Eight months later I had my house, although I had to finish it myself. I had rented an apartment while the construction was going on and I frequently made myself an annoyance to the general contractor, until I fired him, that is. They hated to see me show up. My thoughts on that were simple, don't try to fuck me over with cheap shit when I paid for the good stuff and we'll get along just fine.

I eventually had to take the guy to small claims court over some fixtures that were specified in the blueprints but he had tried to substitute them with cheap knock-offs. It went on constantly; I caught the electrician trying to install Romex when the blueprints said conduit and solid #12 copper wires. He tried to switch the nameplates on a cheap GE main panel box when I specified a Square D commercial grade instead.

During my many trips out to the job site I would see the school bus drive by and drop off the high school kids at the corner. The first few times I ignored this and paid attention to the crooked bastards that were building my home. Just before school was going to be out for the summer, I started to pay attention a little more. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pervert, I was looking for the kids that would be trouble once the daily babysitting was over.

I remembered what I had done as a teenager when a job site was available to plunder at night after all the workers went home. So I was looking for the kids that would do the same thing. I knew I'd recognize the look when I saw it. That calculating stare that said the brain behind the eyes was planning something not altogether kosher. What came as a complete surprise was the fact that it wasn't a boy that I caught looking over at the job site like that, it was a girl.

She was dressed about the same as the others but she was always off by herself, walking behind the others. None of the other kids talked to her or even paid that much attention to her. Her medium length black hair always covered most of her face as she walked along the street towards her house. I had ignored her like the rest of the kids did and it was by pure accident that I managed to see her looking over in my direction.

I was yelling at the contractor again because I had spotted the fake European bathroom fixtures in the back of his pick-up and had torn into him for trying to cheat me out of what I had paid for. My back had been to the street and before the argument escalated to violence, I spun around and walked over to my car to grab the cell phone. I was planning to call my lawyer again and see about what it would take to get an honest contractor in this town.

I had just placed the call when the kids went walking by and I caught her looking right at me. Her dark, almond shaped eyes were taking in everything, like she was memorizing every detail. This caught my attention and I turned to look at her and then the look was gone. She went back to hiding behind that shiny black hair. I muttered an apology to my lawyer's secretary and went on to explain why I called this time.

Due to the unions having everything locked up I couldn't get an honest contractor. I had to do something because nothing was getting done and I hated losing money to those crooked bastards. After working some details out with my lawyer, I decided to finish the house by myself with some general laborers. I hired a private security company to keep an eye on the place at night.

Two weeks went by with me getting very little sleep from all the sore muscles and planning out the next day's work schedule. I had to do a lot of remembering from my days in high school shop to complete the work. I picked up a hardcover NEC (National Electrical Code) book to help me with the electrical work. The general labor I managed to find weren't the smartest guys in the business, but they did work hard for the seventy-five bucks a day I was paying them.

Since I was so busy keeping the laborers busy and doing some of the more complicated work myself, I didn't have an opportunity to keep an eye on the neighborhood kids. However, one day I was up on the roof doing the final wiring on the attic exhaust fan when I spotted the dark haired girl watching me. She was sitting in the shade under a rather large willow tree across the street. Her back was against the trunk and she was reading a book, or at least she was pretending to.

I was under the roof attaching the last coupling on the conduit run into the junction box when I spotted her. She had the book up on her knees but her eyes were on me. When I poked my head up out of the hole and looked towards her. Our eyes met for a brief moment, and then she looked down at her book. I thought to myself that she was really cute and I wouldn't mind having her stare at me some more.

That stopped me for a moment when I realized I was thinking those kinds of thoughts about a girl that was in high school. It was obvious I wasn't the only one who thought she was cute because I noticed that the guys were giving her some attention too. She didn't return their stares like she did mine. She ignored them and only seemed to pay attention to me. Interesting.

After being up in the attic area for two hours I was dizzy from the heat. I decided that I'd leave the rest of the work until tomorrow morning when it would be cooler. I'd had enough for today and I wanted a bit of peace. So I told the crew to knock off for the day. I went over to the water spigot and after the hot water was cleared from the hose, I washed my face. I felt instant relief as the cold water raced down the back of my neck. I soaked my shirt and pants but I didn't care, the cold water felt invigorating. I drank from the hose before shutting it off.

That was a mistake. I had been so thirsty that I drank until I was full. Now I had a stomachache and my head felt like it was full of cotton. My legs felt rubbery. I didn't think I could stand up for much longer. I staggered over to the shade and plopped down against the side of the house. That's the last thing I remember.

When coming awake I felt a soft hand stroke my cheek. I groaned and tasted bile in my mouth. When I opened my eyes and looked around there was no one there. Strange, I thought. Well, I had obviously suffered a minor heat stroke and the touch could have been a form of hallucination. I slowly sat up trying to figure out if I was going to be okay. I had puked while I had been unconscious and I could feel that awful gritty sensation on my teeth.

I stood up, feeling a little unsteady, but I managed not to fall over. I went over to the spigot and rinsed out my mouth. My shirt was a mess and I stripped it off. I gave myself a quick shower standing there in my yard, not caring if anyone saw me. I wasn't about to take my pants off in public. I washed them off as best I could. I didn't want to take the chance of driving while feeling this crappy. I wobbled back over to the shade. That's when I noticed the small footprints in the dirt.

So, the touch on my cheek hadn't been a hallucination. Even more interesting, I thought. Did that mean she liked me? Or was it simply a case of her being a Good Samaritan? What did I want it to be? The safe thing would be the latter but a small part of me wanted it to be the former. I leaned against the side of the house and looked around again. Movement caught my eye and I pretended not to notice. Someone was hiding around the corner of the house next door.

I stared at a point down the street and waited to see if the person hiding would peek out again while my head was turned. Sure enough, a few seconds later a patch of dark hair appeared and one eye looked in my direction. Again, I pretended not to notice and continued to stare down the street. I decided that if she wanted to look, I'd give her something to look at. I stretched out my arms and arched my back. I slowly twisted side-to-side and popped my back and loosened up a bit. That did feel good. I rolled my shoulders and leaned back against the house.

The entire time I did this, I had watched her in my peripheral vision. She had poked her head out completely and her eyes missed nothing while I stretched. I couldn't help grinning while I did this. I think she finally saw the grin and her head disappeared behind the house again. I chuckled to myself and realized I felt pretty good. I stood up and stretched again. That was a mistake. My vision blurred and spots danced in my eyes. Whoa. That's not good.

The dizziness didn't go away and I suddenly found myself on my knees. I caught myself on my hands before planting my face in the dirt. The urge to heave up the water in my stomach briefly washed over me and I fought it off. I felt a pair of hands touch my shoulders and I slowly turned my head to look. The girl had come over and was kneeling next to me and looking at me with concern on her face. I gave her a small smile of thanks and grunted.

She blushed when I smiled at her. A tiny, high-pitched voice asked,

"Are you okay, mister?"

I nodded but didn't say anything. That voice sounded like it came from a little girl, not a mature teenager. She backed away a couple steps when I sat back on my heels. I massaged the back of my neck and tried to gather my wits. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her bring her hands up and she sniffed her fingers. My first thought was that I had missed something when I had washed off earlier. A tiny smile formed on her face as she sniffed her fingers.

That action dashed any notion that I had about missing a spot. She caught my strange look, blushing furiously; she dropped her hands. For a few seconds, she seemed unsure of what to do or where to look. I tried to be a gentleman about the whole episode and pretended not to care about her actions.

Coughing and clearing my throat, I tried to think of what to say. It was odd; I hadn't felt this unsure of myself in a long time.

"Uhm... thanks for looking out for me."

Her blush returned and she nodded, but kept silent. She had one foot idly making small circles in the dirt and her head bowed, looking at me through her bangs. I was frozen in time, looking at this cutie. A very strange feeling washed over me while I looked at her. There was helium in my brain and lead in my feet. This had never happened to me before. I tried to convince myself that it was due to my heat stress. But I was lying to myself at this point. It was her. All her.

I couldn't breathe. I watched her every move. She grinned at my reaction. I wanted to take her right there in the yard. Right in front of god and everyone. I didn't care what anybody thought. I suddenly remembered my manners and shook my head to clear out the fog of lust that filled me.

"What's your name, angel?"

I didn't think it was possible, but her blush darkened even further.

"Li Yung Quang."

The high lilt and singsong cadence of her response sounded strange to my ears. She giggled at what must have been a very odd expression on my face.

"Lie Young Qwahaung?" I tried to repeat. This brought on a fit of giggles and she shook her head.

"No. Just call me Sunshine. Everyone else does."

"Okay, sorry I messed up trying to pronounce your name. I've never heard anything like it before. When you say it, it sounds beautiful. But I'm afraid my thick skull and fumbling tongue can't get it right."

She smiled at my self-depreciation. I lost myself in her smile for a moment and realized that she was waiting for me to tell her my name.

"Oh, um, sorry. Forgot my manners for a second. I'm Peter Branhagen."

"Peter Branhagen. That's a nice name."

"It is when you say it like that."

My comment made her blush. She seemed to shrink into herself for a moment. A very lusty thought flashed through my mind but I quickly dismissed it. I didn't want to frighten her away now that I had her talking to me. She seemed rather perceptive. Of course, I'm also not very good about hiding what I'm thinking either.

"Sorry, I wasn't making fun of you. I mean it. You have a beautiful voice and I like hearing it. It matches the rest of you."

I watched as she thought about what I said. The genuine smile that spread across her face sent those funny sensations through me again. Her jaw moved back and forth with her tongue pushing out her cheek. Oh god. I think I'm in lust. Whoa. I'd better get a hold of myself before I do something really stupid. She's in high school. I'm not. I am so not supposed to be looking at her with these thoughts.

I think she saw the guilt and conflict on my face. She looked around quickly to see if we had an audience. I stopped myself from doing the same. No sense in looking totally obvious. She gave me a quick nod.

"I'd better get home now. Maybe I'll see you around some other time."

With that, she left. I tried not to bore holes in her cute wiggling butt. I failed. Oh damn. What am I going to do now? I looked away before she could catch me staring. I put my hand against the side of the house and pushed myself up. I got the spare emergency blanket out and put it over the seat in my truck. Now I wouldn't have a wet seat going back to my apartment.

Later that evening I was sitting in my comfy chair slowly sipping on a beer. I had showered and was now trying to recover from my earlier stupidity. I rubbed my stiff one through my boxer briefs while thinking about her ass. I tried not to obsess over it but I couldn't help it. It was perfect according to the Pete scale, and 'little Pete' thought it was even better than that.

I tried to rationalize my feelings for such a young girl. The thing was, she had been watching me for several weeks. Granted, at first I thought that she was scoping out the place for mischief, but now I knew she had been watching me. So what does this mean? Could I have a relationship with this girl? Hmmm. I had no easy answers for these questions. Finishing my beer, I tossed the empty into the trash and went to bed.

The following morning I packed some extra Gatorade in my cooler. As fond as I was of having Sunshine being near me, I didn't need a repeat of yesterday. Sunshine. Yeah, she was that all right. I spent the morning finishing up the attic work before it became a blast furnace. When I took a break at mid-morning, I casually glanced around the neighborhood. I didn't spot my dark-haired angel. Perhaps she was hiding especially well.

The thought that I might have frightened her off last night slowly occurred to me. Damn. I shrugged and went back to work. When it was lunchtime the gang loaded up in their vehicles and went on a burger run. Since I had brought my lunch today, I stayed behind to keep an eye on the place. I rolled an empty cable spool over to the porch to put my feet on while I relaxed. I ate my egg salad sandwich and pretzels in peace. I opened up my 'special' cooler that had several cans of soda floating in brine water and ice. I rinsed off the brine and popped one open. Ahhhhhh, nothing beats a Dr. Pepper slushy on a hot day!

I was stupid. I chugged it. Brain freeze! Ugh. While I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden ache, I heard someone snickering. I opened my eyes and found my angel of mercy standing in front of me. Her grin was so cute!

"What's the matter, Peter? Got a headache?"

"Yeah. I drank my Dr. Pepper slushy too fast."

"Dr. Pepper slushy? Where'd you get one of those?"

"I made it myself. Would you like one?"

She blushed and nodded. I got off the cooler and fished out another can.

"Rinse off the can before you open it. There's salt water residue all over it."

"Oh, so that's how you got them so cold. Neat."

After she rinsed off her can, she walked back over to me and sipped hers. I grinned.

"Not going to chug yours?"

"Nope. I don't need to induce any dain bramage."

"Hah! Good one. Funny and beautiful, a winning combination."

She blushed and hid behind her bangs again. Although it was cute the first couple of times, I was getting a little tired of trying to look at her face through that veil. I decided I was going to do something about it.

"Sunshine, do me a favor. Please don't hide your beauty behind your hair."

She slowly looked up at me. She almost hid her smile.

"You think I'm beautiful?"

I almost screwed up. Almost. I kept my smartass answer in check.

"Yes, I do. I like losing myself into those dark eyes of yours and I definitely bask in the warmth of your smile."

Shit. Where'd that cheesy line come from? If I had said something like that to one of the women at the singles bar I would have gotten nothing less than a derisive sneer. However, to a teenage girl, it was poetry. She got a dreamy look on her face and blushed again. This time she made the effort and looked right at me.

"Much better, Sunshine. Thank you."

I dropped my feet off the cable spool and she sat down. I flipped open my lunch box and retrieved the last item, a sack of chewy chocolate chip cookies. Sunshine's eyes lit up and she smiled when I offered her one.

"Thank you. These are my favorites."

I nodded in agreement and stuffed one in my mouth. We both hummed while we chewed. We grinned at each other at our reaction to the soft chewy goodness of the cookies. A slightly uncomfortable silence settled between us. I wasn't sure what to say or do from here. I was mildly attracted to her but just couldn't bring myself to cross that line yet. She seemed to sense my unease.

"Thanks for the slushy and the cookies. I gotta go now. See ya later, Peter."

"Um, okay, Sunshine."

I watched her walk away and couldn't help myself—I stared at her wiggling rear end. Very nice. Just as she reached the sidewalk, she glanced over her shoulder back at me. I wasn't fast enough; she caught me staring. It was my turn to blush. She gave me a quick grin and continued down the street.

The crew returned from their lunch and I got back to work. I couldn't stop thinking about that little grin she gave me. She knew I had been staring at her butt and she didn't mind. I really needed to concentrate on my work and what the others were doing. I pushed those thoughts about her butt aside.

Sunshine visited me during my lunch break every day for the rest of the week. We shared chewy chocolate chip cookies and Dr. Pepper slushies. She was very curious about me. I didn't mind talking to her since that meant she spent more time sitting with me.

"Why are you building your own house?"

"Because none of the contractors in this town are honest. They're just a bunch of crooked bastards."

"So that's why you were always yelling at them? I thought maybe you had anger management problems."

I laughed at that observation.

"Yeah, I can see where you'd get that impression. No, I'm only like that when someone is trying to screw me over. I'm normally a nice guy."

"Yeah, I noticed that once those guys were gone, you didn't yell at anybody."

I nodded.

"How about you, Sunshine? Why do the kids ignore you? I've seen how they never talk to you after you get off the bus."

"I'm not part of their clique. I sort of hang out with the geeks at school."

"Does that mean you are really smart?"

"Hah, I wish. No, I just prefer those guys to the rest of the kids. They aren't so picky about what I wear or the music I listen to. But I don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Why not?"

"I graduated last week."

"Oh. Okay, well, great! Congratulations!"

I felt a wave of relief shoot through me when she said that.

"Thanks."

"So, what's next? College?"

"Yeah, maybe. I don't know."

"You got good grades, right?"

"I guess. I managed to get A's and B's. Mostly B's."

"Nothing wrong with that. I remember getting a few C's and the occasional D."

She thought about that for a few moments. She tilted her head and frowned.

"What do you do for a job? I mean, why aren't you at work now? Are you taking vacation to do this?"

I smiled to myself at the change in subject.