Chapter 1

It was a Monday afternoon in early December that I got the call that changed my life. When I answered the phone a man said, "Is this Alan Baxter?"

"It is. Can I help you?"

He said, "The husband of Lisa Baxter?"

Becoming a little concerned, I replied, "Yes, is something wrong?"

He said, "Unfortunately I am calling to tell you about the inappropriate relationship your wife is having with a man down at the 'The Extra Point'."

At first I was stunned, then annoyed about receiving an obvious prank call. "Who the hell are you and why are you telling me this crap!"

He said, "This is no bullshit, your wife is meeting another guy on Friday nights at the disco."

I knew this wasn't true, not my wife! But an uneasy feeling came over me. Something was going on, something I did not understand, I had to think. But I needed time, "I 'm not alone. Can you call me back in twenty minutes?"

He said, "Okay," and hung up.

I stood there with the phone in my hand, my arms and legs starting to shake. I felt a cold sweat breaking out. My heart was racing but my thoughts felt like molasses. I sat down and put my head in my hands. There couldn't be anything to this, could there?

I had been married to Lisa for six and a half years. We have a beautiful six-year old daughter named Maddy who is the center of our world. And yes, Maddy came a little early. Lisa was pregnant when we got married.

We met during fall term at the local community college. I was twenty and she was eighteen. Lisa was a first year nursing student.

I had completed two years of Business and Accounting but lost my student draft deferment for being five credits behind where the selective service guidelines said I should be. Even though I lived at home I had worked full-time every other term to help pay my tuition. Vietnam was in full swing and needless to say the draft board was not sympathetic.

I was just hanging around the college taking a couple of classes, but mostly playing cards with my buddies in the commons, expecting my draft notice to show up any day. Truth is I was an indifferent student and more than a little bored with school. I had some money in the bank and was young, naïve, and thought that getting away from home and out in the world wouldn't be all bad.

One of guys I was playing cards with, nudged me and said, "look at that" and pointed at the cafeteria line. There was a girl standing there, long brown hair, in a short skirt with great legs. He said "that's Lisa Hartwell; she was two years behind us in high school."

As I studied her I thought to myself "damn, she's cute." As soon as she sat down we walked over and he introduced me. The three of us sat for a while and talked. The two of them had grown up in the same neighborhood and mostly talked about their old gang while I listened and admired the view.

Eventually she said she had to get to class, smiled at both of us and left. I was instantly attracted to her. She was about 5'7", 115 pounds with a dancer's body. Long and lean. Turned out, dancing was her hobby and she had performed in a couple of high school musicals.

She wasn't pretty in a classic sense, but attractive and sexy. She had a big smile, an easy personality and obvious sex appeal. She would talk to anybody and could instantly make you feel she was interested in you.

In high school you could say I was part of the nerd crowd. Not very outgoing and didn't make new friends easily. I read a lot but only got mediocre grades. I was not lazy so I always had a job and took pride in having my own money and my own transportation.

Other than one girlfriend for a few months in my junior year, I only dated a few times. I was tall, 6' 3", 195 pounds, wore glasses and was kind of ordinary looking. I enjoyed sports but was not very good at them. I had never learned to dance, didn't have an expensive car and was never really comfortable talking to girls. So I never attracted much attention.

During my freshman year at college I dated a girl I had met in my summer job. She was good looking, smart and was a sophomore at a nearby University on a scholarship. She was also very religious. Dancing, drinking or sex was not part of her belief system. Strangely enough she loved to make out. About once a week after going to dinner, a concert or the movies we would go parking somewhere and make out like monkeys in the backseat.

She also made sure I kept my hands away from her good parts. Every night I would go home with a case of blue balls. Toward the end of the school year she was offered a summer job in Maine. We both knew this wasn't going to go any further so we decided not to get back together when she came back to school.

After that, other than school and work, my social activities revolved around hanging out with the guys, beach party weekends at the lake weather permitting, occasional poker nights and college keggers. I kind of took to partying more than was probably good for me. I know I gave my parents fits some weekends when I stumbled home in the wee hours of the morning.

I finally lost my virginity to a girl I met at the lake during one of those beach parties. Thanks to more than a few beers on both our parts. She lived about eighty miles away so we only got together about a half dozen times. I had been her first also so we never really got into exploring the wilder aspects of sex. It was fun but when she went downstate to college at the end of the summer our relationship just sort of faded away.

A few days after meeting Lisa, I saw her sitting alone in the commons so I walked over to her table and sat down. We talked for awhile and I really felt the attraction. She told me about deciding to go into nursing since she had been working in hospitals since she was old enough to be a candy striper.

She lived at home to save money as her Dad was on disability. We talked about our families and just really hit it off. Finally I asked her if she would like to go out with me for a movie and pizza this coming week end. She said she was free on Saturday. I said great and would pick her up at seven.

So that started it. After our second date we ended up parking off of one of the county back roads and making out. She was so hot! After being in a clinch for awhile my hands were starting to wander. She finally pushed me away and sat back against the door and said, "Let's talk."

"About what?" I mumbled. "First thing that comes up," and she laughed. Well, I had to laugh too. That cooled things down for the evening.

A couple of weeks later I was visiting at her house and we started to get into it. Her parents had gone to bed but it was a small house and you knew whatever happened in one part of the house could be heard in every part of the house. I suggested we go for a ride. So we drove over to a secluded wood a few miles away.

We climbed into the backseat and we were all over each other. Pretty soon I had her shirt unbuttoned and her bra off and was licking and sucking for all I was worth. She had small breasts but nipples that got as hard as rocks. She was gasping, moaning and making appreciative noises that turned me on even more. We were both rubbing each other's crotches and I was harder than hell. I got her pants unzipped and dipped my hand down her panties and found a swamp. I got one finger in her then a second and started to go to town. About that time she got me unzipped and had a hold of my cock like she would never let go. I thought to myself, yes! This is going to happen! I started pulling her jeans and panties off and she lifted her butt to help. I shucked out of my pants, shorts and shoes in nothing flat and we went back to playing with each other.

After a bit I pulled back and looked around for my wallet. Lisa was almost panting, "What are you doing"?

"I'm looking for a condom," I said.

"Don't worry, I 'm two days away from my period, I'm safe." I thought to myself, she's a nursing student so she should know. I sat back down against the seat and she swung her leg over me, grabbed my cock and lined it up with her pussy and slowly lowered herself onto me.

I could just feel myself tickling her cervix as she bottomed out. She grabbed my face and stuck her tongue half way down my throat. Man, I never felt anything so good! It was my first time without a condom and there was just no comparison!

It only took a half a dozen strokes and I couldn't hold it. I thought it would have been running out her ears as hard as I came. At the same time she ground herself onto my cock one last time, shuddered and slowly went limp against my chest. We just lay there, holding each other. Both of us feeling something special had occurred.

After that I was whipped. I admit it. We were talking on the phone almost every day, going out once or twice every week, and almost always ended the night making love. And it wasn't just sex. I didn't know if it was love but it was close.

A friend of mine with his own apartment would let me use it on weekends when he went up north to visit his parents. We would make love three, four times a night before I had to get her home. Lisa was totally uninhibited, energetic, vocal and multi-orgasmic. We found we both enjoyed oral sex, taking showers together and making love in just about every position we had heard about. I was not her first but she said there had been only one other guy she had dated in Florida during spring break.

A few weeks later, the end of the college term and my draft notice arrived at about the same time. I had to report to the processing center in thirty days. Lisa got all weepy when I told her and she said she loved me. Up to that point I had avoided saying the 'L' word but I had to admit I thought I loved her too.

About a week before I was to leave we were out and Lisa had this nervous look on her face. "Alan, I need to tell you something. I'm late for my period." I thought, 'Oh shit'! Somehow I never thought about birth control or condoms after that first night. Neither one of us brought it up so I assumed she was safe and on the pill or something.

I just sat there, trying to think of something to say. Lisa just looked at the ground and tears started running down her face. I felt so bad I reached out and wrapped her in my arms and hugged and kissed her. After a while she settled down and we started talking about our different options.

For some reason neither one of us mentioned marriage. We decided if she were pregnant she would either have an abortion or have the baby and put it up for adoption. In either event, one of Lisa's brothers and his wife lived down in Alabama so she thought she could go live with them for awhile. Maybe she could keep the pregnancy from her friends and the rest of the family.

I said I thought that might be best. I had some money put away and as soon as my Army pay kicked in I could send her some more. Neither of us was happy that night and I took her home without our usual passionate ending.

Lisa went to the doctor a couple of days later and confirmed it. We made tentative plans for her to go down south after I went in the Army. I gave her most of everything I had in the bank, which with what money she had should take care of her needs.

We went out the night before I left and made love, over and over in a quiet kind of desperation. When I dropped her off at home, Lisa clung to me and whispered, "I am so scared, Alan, I love you more than anything". As I drove away I felt about as low as I ever had in my life.

About six hours later, myself and a couple of hundred other nervous, sleep deprived and in many cases, hung over, guys reported in to the Induction Center. After processing we were sworn into the Army, handed a box lunch, put on busses and made the ten hour drive to Ft. Knox, Kentucky. We stumbled off the bus around midnight, being screamed at by a half dozen no-nonsense Drill Instructors. We were hustled through a line to pick up bedding and then shoved into an old WWII barracks to sleep on bunks nearly as old.

Now during Vietnam, Army Basic Combat Training consisted of about one week in-processing and orientation, then six weeks of military training. Advanced Individual Training (AIT) would follow after that for what ever specialty you chose, or the Army had chosen for you. Basic included all the usual things everyone has heard of, physical fitness training, rifle instruction and qualification, obstacle course, drill & ceremony, land navigation, map reading, hygiene and dozens of other necessary military topics.

I found the trick to surviving basic training was to keep your mouth shut, do what you are told, and sleep when you got the chance. We were always exhausted from the high speed, high stress environment. I was a couple of years older than the average recruit with two years of college. So I was made a squad leader after the first one crashed and burned in week two. He had a sudden epiphany that he was a Conscientious Objector and was against the war. I think he was just a little late with that call.

Meanwhile Lisa was writing me daily. The highlight of our day was mail call. One thing about the Army, they never stood between a soldier and his mail. She told me over and over how much she loved me and kept me up to date on her progress to move to Alabama. Or I should say lack of progress. She said her sister-in-law wore the pants in that family and was not being cooperative. She was reluctant to get involved in our problems and was trying to convince Lisa to tell her parents.

Now Lisa's folks always treated me okay, but they were chain smoking, beer drinking factory rat hillbillies from way back. Her father, brother and brother-in-law were bona fide alcoholics who cheated on their spouses, fought anyone at the drop of a hat, and if not actually abused their kids, at least neglected them.

Her mother and sister spent most of their time trying to keep up with their men folk. Lisa was the baby in the family and seemed to have escaped the worst of the family influence. She never developed a taste for beer and quit smoking as soon as she found out I didn't like girls who did. Somehow I just did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling about them finding out I knocked up their baby daughter.

As the weeks rolled by I was totally involved in getting through training. But every night I was bombarded with letters from Lisa getting more and more desperate over the pregnancy. Between basic training and her letters my gut was always in a knot. I frequently wrote back and called her whenever we were given phone privileges. She kept trying to work things out with her sister-in-law but was getting nowhere.

At the time, if your training went well each company was promised a 48 hour weekend pass after week four. Lo and behold on that Thursday we were told we would be released Friday night and would not be due back until Sunday night. However the terms of the pass stated you were not to go further than fifty miles from post or you would be considered AWOL.

There were six of us in my platoon who all lived in the same county who wanted to get home and see our wives or girlfriends. So we all chipped in and rented a car and hit the road. It was more like five hundred miles to home than fifty. After eight hours of driving I was dropped off at my parent's house about two in the morning. I got about six hours sleep and then headed over to see Lisa.

Her parents had gone up to the lake where they kept a trailer so we were able to be alone. She started crying when she saw me at the door and held on to me like she thought she would never see me again. We went back to her bed and threw our clothes off. We made love and talked and made love again and talked some more.

It had come down to her sister-in-law wouldn't let her come to Alabama and she thought she was almost ten weeks along. Almost too far along for an abortion. As we made love that last time that morning she started crying and said, "I don't want to kill our baby!" That stopped me in mid-stroke. I realized that I had only one option left. I knew I couldn't abandon her.

Finally I said, "Lisa, do you want to get married?" Not the most romantic of proposals for sure.

She wiped her eyes and whispered, "I don't want you to feel you have to marry me." I assured her I didn't and I thought this would be the best solution.

As much as I dreaded it I would tell my parents before I left the next day to return to Ft. Knox. She would have to tell her parents and start making plans for the wedding. I told her whatever arrangements she wanted to make would be fine with me. But she couldn't set a date until I knew where I was going after basic training.

With the decision made we were able to relax a little and think about what this meant. Was it love? I thought so. I knew I wanted to be with her and that's all there was to it.

The next morning I caught Mom and Dad before they left for church and got the hard part over. What made it easier was that my older brother had gotten married two years before when he got his girlfriend pregnant. Things were tense for quite a while but they finally came around and things worked out. And when their baby came everything was forgiven.

I have to say a few things about my family. Dad was a mid-level supervisor for a manufacturing company and Mom was a full-time homemaker and part-time teacher's aide. They did pretty well financially, always had a nice home and were able to provide the necessities for us four boys. They were active in church and PTA.

While I was growing up, we were expected to attend church every Sunday. As soon as I was old enough to get a job I figured out if I had to work on Sunday I could get out of it. I always tried to work on Sunday. They didn't smoke, rarely swore or drank. They were very family oriented. And we never doubted they loved us.

So when I told them that Lisa and I were going to get married they had been over this ground before. Mom simply asked, "Do you have to?"

"Don't have to Mom, but Lisa is pregnant."

Dad just got this grim look on his face and Mom just shook her head. "Have Lisa call me this week and we can talk about your plans while you are off playing soldier." And then they left for church. I ran over to Lisa's to spend a couple of hours with her then met up with the guys for the drive back down south.

As graduation approached I received orders to Ft. Polk, Louisiana for my Advanced Individual Training. The Army in its infinite wisdom decided I was to receive eight weeks on-the-job training to be an administrative assistant in the post Adjutant Generals office. I always figured it was because I had a couple years of college and knew how to type. The best thing was I could have up to seven days leave before reporting. I called Lisa and asked her if that was enough time to have the wedding. Lisa, her mother and my mother had things well in hand and managed to pull it together.

We had a nice church wedding, not too large with a reception following. Lisa was a beautiful bride. And the dress she bought was loose enough to hide her beginning baby bump. Her dad supplied a keg and most of her family was drunk by the end of the night.

Lisa and I had a three-day quickie honeymoon and then I got on a plane for Ft. Polk. We decided that Lisa would continue to live at home until I finished training and received a permanent assignment. She also decided not to return to college and went back to working full-time as a ward clerk at the hospital.

Ft. Polk was a hellhole. It had recently been reactivated as an infantry training post because of Vietnam. Hot, muggy with cockroaches as big as your thumb. But I was working inside in an air-conditioned office, mostly as a glorified clerk-typist and go-fer. My time there went by quickly.

After about six weeks I got orders to report to Germany at the end of my training. I couldn't believe my luck! Most of the guys coming out of AIT were being ordered to 'Nam.

I had a delay in reporting to my new assignment so I was able to spend ten days at home. Lisa was about six months along but still sexy as hell and horny all the time. My plan was to request leave for the birth of the baby as soon as I got to my new unit. Lisa was going to stay with her parents until the last month of her pregnancy and then move to my folk's house. They had a couple of extra bedrooms that could better accommodate her and the baby.

I flew over and was assigned as a maintenance clerk in an armored unit. It was another OJT assignment but looked like it would be easy to learn. We were located on a small base near the East German border. It was the height of the cold war and our unit's primary assignment was to patrol the border which we did about one week out of six.

I spent the next few months mostly trying to stay straight enough not to get into trouble. The hashish available in Germany at that time was the best in the world and cheap. It helped us forget our horniness. If you didn't stay stoned the temptation to visit the legal whorehouses in Wurzburg or Nuremberg was overwhelming.

I flew home a couple of days before Lisa's due date. She was big as a house! She went into labor four days later. The delivery went well and we soon had a beautiful baby girl we named Madelyn. When I first looked at her I could tell my life would never be the same. I hung around for about a week after the birth and enjoyed every minute of it. We made plans for her and the baby to come to Germany as soon as Maddy was old enough to travel.

Everything came together finally and about three months later I was meeting my family at the Frankfurt Airport. Living in Germany as a junior enlisted man with dependents was a struggle. Too junior to be eligible for military housing, we rented an apartment in a little village about ten kilometers from the base. I had bought an old convertible VW beetle whose body was about three different shades of blue and was probably on its fifth or sixth engine.

Our furniture was old beat up rejects from base housing or cast-offs from other soldiers transferring out. We had no television, just a multi-band radio. My pay was just enough to cover basic necessities with a little left over to go to the movies once a month. Gas was cheap so many weekends we would go day tripping through the German countryside.

Our only other entertainment was ourselves. Maddy was a wonder. She was a happy baby almost all the time and she would sleep ten-twelve hours a night. Lisa was a great mom and of course she was with her all day long. But when I got home I would spend almost every minute she was awake playing with her. When she wasn't awake, Lisa and I played with each other.

Our evenings were like the honeymoon we never had. For ten months, interrupted only by the times I had to do a border patrol rotation, we made love nearly every night and in every way possible. I grew to know Lisa's body better than my own. And what a body she had! She had regained her figure quickly after Maddy was born. Her hips were a little fuller, her breasts a little rounder. (But she still complained about how small they were) But not a stretch mark or blemish on her! She could turn on a dead man!

Most times Lisa was as enthusiastic and eager for sex as I was. She loved to tease me until Maddy was asleep. Making love was fantastic. Lisa being multi-orgasmic made sex extraordinary. At least I thought so. Sometimes I would get her off during foreplay, then during oral sex and then a couple of times during vaginal sex. It was such a turn on and inspired me all the more. Some nights we would fall asleep spooning, with me still inside her and then wake up later in the night or in the morning going at it again.

It wasn't just the sex. It seemed like we came to know each other so well we could finish each other's sentences. When we looked at each other we almost always knew what the other was thinking. We never really had a fight, we would disagree at times but never did we get angry. We talked about anything and everything. What we wanted out of life. What we wanted for Maddy. What we wanted to do when we got back home.

We looked out for each other and did our best to make each other happy. The emotional bond we developed convinced me that this was forever. I couldn't imagine being without her. And I was convinced she felt the same way.

With my tour coming to an end I was offered a promotion if I would re-enlist. But we both wanted to go back to the 'world.' Be with family and friends, return to school, start a career, get on with our lives. It was a great experience and I was proud of my service but it was time to move on.

What a relief to be home after being gone for two years. We moved in with my parents for a couple of months until we could get back on our feet. I got a temporary second shift job at the local auto plant and enrolled back into college. Between the VA benefits and work we would do all right. We bought a used car and rented a townhouse and scrounged used furniture from family and friends.

Living with my parents had put a serious crimp in our sex lives. But after getting into our own place things picked back up again. It never really got back to the honeymoon fever we had experienced in Germany but it was still pretty great. Two-three times a week was our usual frequency. We continued to enjoy making love in a variety of ways.

We were always affectionate with each other. We held hands when walking together, touched and caressed each other frequently and often cuddled on the couch watching television. From time to time the subject of having another child would come up but neither one of us seemed to want to commit to it.

We had gotten into the habit of going out to the live rock and roll bars near campus with several other couples about twice a month. Now you have to know, in order for me to dance, it required liberal amounts of alcohol and lots of people dancing around me. So after a few drinks, Lisa would get me out on the dance floor and we would really boogie. Slow dancing didn't bother me. Being able to hold Lisa was my inspiration and made me better than I actually was. But fast dancing I was pretty much a typical white boy, few moves and rhythmically challenged. But Lisa could really shake it. Invariably she was dressed to kill and so hot she could make a grown man cry. After a night out I usually couldn't wait to get her home and in bed.

For the next few years I continued to go to college part-time and worked a variety of jobs. Within a couple of terms I finished my requirements for my associate degree and transferred to Michigan State to work toward a B.A.

I held several temporary second shift jobs in the winter months but during the warm season I mostly worked for several construction firms. Strangely enough I found out I liked the construction jobs the most. Working outside, operating heavy equipment and doing physical labor gave me a lot of satisfaction.

I had met a couple of other veterans at school who were doing about the same thing I was. John and Craig were best friends and had even been the best man in each other's weddings. We were all married and had small kids. We started socializing together along with five or six other couples from time to time. Barbecues, pool parties, chili cookouts, mostly family type get togethers.

Craig was working in a residential construction business owned by his wife's father. And John had worked for several heavy construction companies in the area before and after going in the service. So he knew his way around the construction business. One day he came to me with a proposal.

We both would kick in a couple of thousand dollars and incorporate a construction company. We would be combining his experience and mine, along with my college background in business and accounting. He suggested we do mostly landscaping and maybe some underground work to start. We could sub-contract out to several building contractors including Craig's company.

The thought of working for ourselves had a lot of appeal. And the possibility of making some serious money was attractive. Lisa and I talked it over and we decided to go for it. Lisa had done some childcare out of our home until Missy was about four and ready for pre-school. She then decided to return to hospital work.

But we were pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. We had moved a couple of times and were now living in a nice duplex. We owned our furniture, a three-year-old car and a 4WD pickup truck. That was pretty much it.

The work was interesting and we were busy about eight months of the year. We would hire four or five guys to work for us on projects as needed. Living in the snow-belt pretty much shut down most dirt type construction projects when the frost got in the ground. But we collected unemployment during the down months and did some 'cash under the table' casual work so we were never hurting too bad. And of course I was still collecting some VA education benefits.

Early on John and I had gotten into the habit of going to happy hour at various bars after work on Friday's to pound down a few. We were usual joined by a bunch of other construction types including Craig. Now John and Craig were pretty hard beer drinkers to the point of being alcoholic. I was usually satisfied with a mild buzz from a couple of mixed drinks.