Chapter 2: A Fresh Start

-- SEPTEMBER 26 --

"C'mon you landlubber! Put your back into it!" Aaron urged from behind me.

Setting the business end of my pitchfork on the ground, I turned and shot my roommate a look. "Landlubber?"

"Brace those halyards! Man off the port bow!" He gave me a goofy grin and shrugged. "We watched Pirates last night; whaddaya want from me?"

I rolled my eyes and then shoved my farm tool into one of the stacked bales of hay before me. And without looking I threw an entire bale at him, forcing Zoey to shout "Look out!" too late for my buddy to avoid having about twenty-five pounds of dry hay hit him in the side and knock him off balance.

"Dude! You so did not just do that!" Aaron promptly dug into his own pile and lofted a hay bale in my direction, only to have his face fall right as he watched his bale similarly fall a couple of feet short of me.

I just threw him a smug grin.

"No fair," Aaron grumbled. "You've spent your entire life carrying around forty pounds of excess fat. It's the only reason you're stronger than me."

My grin only got wider as we went back to work.

"Actually," Marie chirped from my left as she approached us. "I think you're getting stronger, period." She reached up and patted my left arm, but Zoey let out a teasing two-note whistle and Marie jerked her hand back like she'd accidentally stuck it into a hot toaster.

The blushing brunette backed off and composed herself before pointing rather business-like at the wheelbarrow beside me. "I think that's plenty, guys. Why don't you go ahead and bring it all into the stables."

I eyed my cart, judging the weight of the hay I'd already stacked there. With a shrug, I threw one more bale on top, then set down my pitchfork and went to stand between the two handlebars. Squatting down, I got a good grip and then stood up with a grunt of exertion, and then smiled at Marie as I trundled forward to wheel my load inside.

Zoey followed after. "I hate to admit it, but Marie's right. You ARE getting fitter, Nick."

"Nothin' like a little honest work to re-shape a man," I grunted as I continued waddling.

"Yeah – hnngh," Aaron grunted as he too lifted his wheelbarrow. "But your shape is still round."

Zoey reached out and pinched some of my love handle, which caused me to wobble and nearly lose my load. After steadying myself, I shot her a look while she gave me a 'What did I do?' expression of innocence. Rolling my eyes, I simply continued on and into the stables. And after parking my cart, I set about hoisting the 25-pound hay bales with my hands and re-stacking them against a wall.

When I was done, I looked around for my friends. Zoey was putting feed bags onto some of the horses, and Aaron was still unloading his hay. I took one step in Aaron's direction, intending to help him finish. But when I glanced around for Marie, I couldn't locate her and turned back the other way in curiosity.

"There, there. Easy, easy..." Marie's tender voice carried over from a nearby stall. At first glance, it appeared to be empty; but when I stepped to the half-door and peered over the edge, I finally saw them.

Marie was seated on the ground just inside the door, her legs together and folded to one side. A young colt stood in the straw before her, eyeing her carefully as she held up a grooming brush in her right hand.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just here to brush your coat ... Thaaat's it ... All gentle now. I'm not gonna hurt you. Just a tender caress here ... and a nice, easy stroke there ... See? That doesn't hurt a bit."

Marie kept talking, slowly and deliberately, repeating phrases and otherwise just keeping up her one-sided conversation so that the horse would get used to the sound of her voice. It seemed to be working, because the baby horse was letting her brush his coat. At least, he did right up until he noticed me out of the corner of his eyes, and with a start, the colt jerked away from Marie.

She sighed and then glanced up at me, fixing her glasses with an index finger up the bridge of her nose.

"Sorry, sorry," I apologized with both hands up in the air. "Didn't mean to disturb."

"That's okay," she replied with her eyes on the colt. "Nick is a nice man, and he's just here to bring you more straw. I know you'll like that, won't you Cilantro? You're just a baby, and I know you're anxious since your momma isn't around right now. But you can relax. Auntie Marie is taking good care of you, huh?"

Cilantro calmed down the more she kept talking. And although he kept an eye on me, the colt settled down and let Marie resume grooming him. Once the tension in the air evaporated, I decided it was a good time to get out of there. And as quietly as I could, I backed away and out of sight.

Further up the barn, I ran into Zoey. "Marie doing her horse whisperer-thing again?"

I cracked a smile and nodded. "She seems really good with them."

"I don't get it," Zoey shrugged. "She says she didn't grow up around horses or anything, apart from her vacations to come here. And she didn't have a clue what to do when we first started. But lately, she's gotten so good with them that our team leads keep assigning us to stable duty."

"Not really your cup of tea? I'm sure they could split you up from time to time. Aaron and I have gotten different work details every so often."

"Nah." She waved me off. "It's easy work. And I do think Norma is trying to put the ranch hands where they're best suited."

I rolled my eyes. "So what does that say about me and Aaron? We keep getting assigned manure duty."

"Speaking of which," Aaron said from behind her before goosing Zoey's ass.

"Hey! Fucker." She turned and slapped his arm.

Aaron just grinned. "Hope your new and improved biceps are up to the task. We've got a big pile of dung we need to shovel in twenty minutes."

I sighed. "Ah, shit."

As one might expect, the worst thing about manure is the smell. The stuff isn't particularly heavy, and there were far more exhausting things we could be assigned to in this place. Personally, I would much rather shovel manure than clean the bathrooms or do kitchen work.

But of course, there was the smell. Hang around the crap long enough and it feels like the scent is working its way into your pores. It certainly soaked into our clothes, so much that even an hour after leaving the work behind, we still quite literally smelled like shit.

Aaron and I had quickly learned to take extra showers and change our clothes immediately after manure duty. We had a gazillion camp-labeled polo shirts for uniforms and one pair of khaki shorts is just as good as any other. So before dinner we hustled back to our bunkroom to get cleaned up.

"I call first," Aaron announced as we hit our room.

"What? You went first yesterday," I bitched.

"Then call 'first' tomorrow. Or go use the girls' bathroom. There's no one here."

I rolled my eyes and then weighed my options. These staff cabins had been built in the 1940s, back when indoor plumbing was a luxury for such a remote mountain retreat. Eight rooms with double occupancy meant that sixteen people were sharing two bathrooms, one at each end of the single main hallway. And each bathroom had only one shower.

Despite being a "family" camp, management hadn't segregated our particular cabin by gender. The four rooms on the west side were female and the four rooms on the east side were male. While this predictably led to a lot of extra-curricular fraternization between the sexes, the thin walls and close proximity also made it nearly impossible for physical intimacy without EVERYONE knowing about it. People hooking up tended to arrange a rendezvous elsewhere.

The point is: it only made sense for the west end bathroom to be for the girls and the east bathroom to be for the guys. But Aaron was right, the bathrooms themselves were identical and my choices were to wait for him or to just hop over to the west side and do my thing.

"Fine. Whatever." I stripped my smelly shirt off and grabbed my towel and bathroom kit. Aaron just gave me a head nod as he exited our room and turned right. And I made the relatively longer walk over to the left.

As always, it took a little while for the hot water to come on. I wasn't expecting all that much out of 1940's plumbing, not going from a cold start. But surprisingly, it came on faster than I would have expected. Perhaps the water heater was closer to this end of the building. I shook my head as I fully unclothed and then stepped into the spray. Somehow, someway, girls ALWAYS get the nicer bathrooms.

Anyway, I soaped up and shampooed (manure-smell is TWICE as bad in your hair), and I was just rinsing off when I heard the door open. "Ooh, thanks for getting the water warmed up," a female voice called. "I need a shower BAD and I can't WAIT to get out of these smelly clothes. Are you almost done?"

Now in retrospect, I should have announced my presence right away. The female in question would then have still been fully clothed, and the worst awkwardness could have been avoided.

But I panicked. I froze in place, not daring to say a word knowing that my voice would never pass for a woman's. My eyes went wide and my hearing sharpened as I went absolutely rigid beneath the shower spray, and my heart began racing while I heard the rather obvious sounds of clothes being stripped off someone's body just outside the floor-length curtain.

"Hey did you hear me? Are you almost done?" she repeated.

My jaw opened slightly, but no sounds came out. I blinked rapidly, my mind awhirl. What the fuck do I do? What the fuck do I do?

My conscience was no help to me. No brilliant strategies or situation-defusing words came to mind. I simply froze there, unable to react. And then the girl outside decided to take matters into her own hands as she reached in and pulled the curtain aside.

"EEEK!" Deedee squealed in shock when she saw me. She jerked backward, her right hand flailing out and accidentally tugging the curtain even farther to the side.

My own reaction was to cover my crotch with both hands, my eyes impossibly getting even wider in shock. And NOW my brain decided to start spitting words into my brain.

Boobs! Boobs! Boobs!

And Deedee certainly had a pair of them. I didn't know enough to judge based purely on sight whether they were truly Double-D's, but they were certainly big, especially on her slender frame. And one thing I now knew for sure: Zoey had been dead wrong. These perfect melons were ALL real.

The gorgeous blonde had undressed down to just her panties, her clothes folded neatly on the bench beside her. Her hands first went up and to her sides in fright, giving me that wonderful view of her naked tits. But then a second later she used her arms to cover herself as she shrieked, "What the FUCK are you DOING in here?!?"

Words finally filled my mouth. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I thought no one was here and Aaron called first on the other shower and I didn't want to wait around so I thought I could just come in here and then get out and--"

"GET OUT!" she screamed, latching onto those words. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

I got out. Wet, naked, and petrified, I darted out of the shower and scrambled out the door. I forgot my towel, my shorts, and my bathroom kit. I left everything behind in a mad dash through the hallway. And I barely glanced at Priscilla, Deedee's roommate, who had come out of her bunkroom to see what the commotion was about and now stood in her doorway with one hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh TOO hard at the schlubby, naked man hustling through the cabin with his hands over his crotch.

Whether it was his fault or not, I was going to KILL Aaron.

Either that, or I was calling 'first' for the rest of the year.

"Hey, you got a minute?"

I recognized the voice immediately and my spine stiffened. I'd been sitting on a battered vinyl armchair in the staff lounge, sipping my Diet Coke when Aaron had suddenly gone quiet on the seat in front of me. We hadn't been talking about "the shower incident", not in a public place like this. But our attempts to make small talk about anything else had not been very successful, and so I was still rather on edge.

Setting my drink down, I turned and looked up at Deedee. From this angle, her big tits actually obscured the lower portion of her face, but I forced myself to look past them and nod. "Yeah."

"Wanna go for a walk?" Her eyes tracked over to Aaron before coming back to me. "Just the two of us."

I gulped. "Uh, sure."

The conversation around us died down as I got to my feet and followed her out. I was fairly certain that nobody outside of Aaron and Priscilla knew what had happened this afternoon, but it was so unexpected for Deedee to be asking ME to go for a walk that everyone around us had taken notice. After all, Deedee was the hottest girl on staff who STILL hadn't hooked up with any of her many more desirable suitors, and I was ... well ... me.

We left the building and then turned down the hill. I let her lead, but stayed about a pace back on her right side as we rounded the Main Lodge and started on the path toward the lake. This route was the most heavily traveled in the camp, and even though we were now officially in autumn there were still some guests around, although nothing like the peak summer season before Labor Day had been.

We walked in silence as Deedee pulled up the zipper on her vest, not to remove her cleavage from sight (I think) but because the temperature was rapidly falling, as it did every evening around this time. Of course, she could have been feeling uncomfortable around the sick pervert she'd caught in the women's bathroom; but I was hoping not, else she wouldn't have come out here with me alone.

When we got to the lake, we saw six guests playing sand volleyball off to the right. One of them beckoned and invited us to join them. We were no longer in uniform, and it wasn't uncommon for the staff to mingle with the guests like that during our off-time. But Deedee waved them off and turned us to the left, walking us almost halfway around the lake before stopping at a little outcropping of boulders.

Perching herself on one, Deedee gestured to another for me to sit. I did so obediently and looked around. There wasn't another human being in sight except for the volleyball players almost directly across the lake, and they certainly were well out of hearing range. And as she took a deep breath before speaking, I braced myself for a sharp rebuke.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I should have handled that better."

My head picked up and I looked at her in surprise. Blinking twice, I stammered for a second before getting out, "You're... You're sorry?"

She gave me a shrug and a wan smile before nodding.

"I, uh..." I began before furrowing my eyebrows and taking a moment to get my bearings. "You, you have nothing to apologize for. I was the one in the girls' bathroom. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"Well, maybe. But you tried to explain yourself, I just wasn't listening at the time."

"Yeah, well, that's understandable given that we were both rather, uh ... naked."

She blushed and looked down. Damn she looked cute when she did that. The vision of her naked breasts suddenly popped into mind, but I shook my head to clear it and focused myself on her blue eyes.

"Really, -I- should be apologizing," I began. "When I heard you come in, I should have said something immediately, before you started getting undressed. Like, 'Hey, I'm sorry. I know I'm not supposed to be in here but my roommate is using the other shower and I thought no one would be here.' Something like that."

"Yeah, that probably would have been much easier to handle," Deedee giggled and nodded. But then she gave me a coy wink and added, "But then you would have missed your chance to ogle all this."

I let my eyes follow her hands up and down her body as she gestured to herself. Once again, that vision of her naked breasts sprang to mind. "I ... uh..." I fumbled, unable to process a thought coherently for a few seconds. And then squeezing my eyes shut, I forced myself to breathe before saying with my eyes still closed, "It was spectacular; I won't deny it. But I'm still sorry. It was an accident and I didn't mean for that to happen."

"It's okay. I'm actually not all that bashful about my body; you just surprised me, that's all." She suddenly sat up straight and held a palm out to me. "Not that I make a point of flashing myself to every guy I see or anything."

"'Course not."

She chuckled. "Besides, I got to see you in all your glory too."

"Oh, right," I drawled. "Big thrill there, checking out the tubbiest chunk of lard working at this camp."

"Oh, you're not that bad, especially in the last couple of weeks. You're really getting into shape, and I actually think you're pretty cute."

That raised my eyebrows. "Me? I think you're confusing me with one of the many handsome, muscular young studs around this camp."

She turned her head and waved a hand dismissively. "Guys are guys. They all just want one thing."

I chuckled and nodded, muttering, "Yeah. You."

Her head snapped around to me, and suddenly I felt those blue eyes boring into the back of my skull. "What do you mean by that?"

I winced, realizing that I'd spoken without thinking. Holding my hands up defensively, I said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean any offense."

"What DID you mean?"

I took a deep breath, and then dropped my hands back into my lap. I eyed her face, noting the sudden curiosity in her expression and frowned. "Surely you've noticed how almost every guy here is constantly checking you out."

She blushed and averted her gaze. "Not every guy."

"Most of them."

"You included?"

Now it was my turn to blush as I turned my head. But then after another deep breath I forced myself to look straight at her and admit, "Sure. You're beautiful, but then you already know that. You're a comfortable flirt, you've even been doing it with me right here, despite what happened in the shower this afternoon. But even more alluring to everyone is that you AREN'T hooking up with anyone. You're friendly, you're nice, and if you just crooked your finger you could get almost any guy in this place to obey your every whim. But you don't. You just kind of glide through this place as if you barely even realize just how much people are staring at you. That's a mystery, and I have to be honest, when we guys get to talking, a lot of them wonder what it would take for THEM to be the first guy to actually hook up with you."

She scowled. "You make it sound like I'm a prize to be ... scored."

I grimaced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like that. It's not like there's a competition for somebody to be the first to nail you. I meant romantically: like a boyfriend, or even just a date."

She shook her head. "Not interested."

"So I've heard. But you're single? No boyfriend waiting for you back home?"

Looking out across the water, she sighed. "Ex. And not a very good breakup."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"So is that why you're not interested in dating? Still getting over your last relationship?"

"Something like that." She took a deep breath. "I just ... I just needed to get away, you know? Too many things back home reminding me of him, reminding me of us, what we once were. Spending a year up here wasn't what I had always been planning on, but after the breakup it seemed like a good place to re-boot and get my head straight again. And I really don't want all the complications of dating or otherwise getting involved with a new guy."

"Well, I guess that answers that question."

"What question?"

I gave her a lopsided grin. "Whether or not you were a lesbian."

She gave me an equally lopsided grin and threw in a wink. "Technically, you don't know that."

Suddenly, a new image sprang to mind, that of Deedee's supple round breasts ... being sucked on by Priscilla, her cutie Asian roommate. I blinked twice and forced myself to keep my focus. "Uh, with an ex-boyfriend, you at least weren't a lesbian. 'Bisexual', I guess, is still an option."

"Or maybe my bad experience with him turned me into a dyke."

"Sure." I chuckled and shook my head, not believing we were having this conversation. Already, Deedee had spoken twice as many words to me in the past several minutes than she had in the entire month we'd been working together.

"But what about you?"

I frowned in confusion. "What about me?"

She eyed me carefully, one eyebrow arched as she said slowly, "You were saying that ALL the guys want me and everyone is wondering what it would take to hook up with me and all that. I have to admit, I HAVE noticed a lot of male attention, and I'm kinda used to that. But not from you. In a month, you haven't made a single pass at me, unless you planned your little shower surprise as a mastermind way to get me to go on this walk with you."

"Uh, no." I blushed and averted my eyes.

"So what about you? Why haven't YOU tried to hook up with me?" A wide grin spread across her face and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "Are you gay?"

My eyes flew open and I held my hands up. "No, no. Nothing like that."

"Didn't think so. Can't help but notice where your eyes keep going, even with my girls fully zipped up and all." She patted the bulges denting out the chest of her sweater for emphasis.

I let my eyes drop to "her girls", sighed, and then brought my gaze back up to her face. Her question still hung in the air – why I didn't make a pass at her – and though I knew the reason, it wasn't the sort of thing to feel good about.

She waited me out. She kept her gaze on me as I turned to look at the lake, across the lake, to the trees beyond, or anywhere ELSE besides looking at her. But with one final sigh, I returned my eyes to hers and admitted, "Well, uh, you're kinda out of my league."

She blinked. "Why, because you think you're fat?"

I shrugged. "Call it a lifetime of experience. Girls don't exactly find me all that appealing."

Her look turned sympathetic, and after a moment of awkward silence between us, she reached forward and patted my knee. "Well -I- like you. You're easy to talk to, you're not pretentious, and you don't have a massive ego like some of the blowhards around here."

I snorted and shook my head. "Shoulda seen me a couple of months ago; I had ego aplenty. Getting dumped here in the middle of nowhere out of shape and lacking all the necessary qualities for being a good ranch hand made sure to kill that."

She giggled musically and gave me another room-lighting smile. "At least you've got a sense of humor about it. I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and after just a few minutes sitting here talking to you, I think you, Nick Campbell, are a really nice guy."

I blinked in surprise, not just because she said she liked me but also that she even knew my full name.

"So apart from the 'out of your league' thing, which I think is bullshit by the way," she continued. "Would you be one of the guys hitting on me? I mean, maybe in a couple of months if you get in shape and get some confidence in yourself and happen to be feeling horny, are you going to make a pass at me then?"

I raised my eyebrows, surprised by her question. Two months ago? Absolutely I would have made a pass at her. I'd have talked to her about my high-paying job and the Malibu beach house and found some way to subtly flash the keys to my Benz. But not anymore. I didn't have the job, the beach house, OR the Benz. All I had left was ... me. And the me that was left didn't have a prayer, even IF she thought I was a "nice guy".

It was sobering to realize just how undesirable I really was, but then that was a realization I'd already come to grips with. I had absolutely NO chance with Deedee, and knowing that gave me a sense of calm. With a shrug, I explained, "First of all, getting into good enough shape that I don't feel like Mr. Potato Head next to these gym rats? I kinda doubt that. But even if it happened, no, I wouldn't make a pass at you."

She gave me that lopsided grin again. "Sure you're not gay?"

I chuckled. "I'm sure. I have a better reason."

"What's that?"

"You just told me you're getting over your ex-boyfriend and you don't want the complications of hooking up with a new guy. I won't mess with that." I shrugged again and gave her a wry smile. "I guess you can at least count on ONE guy in this camp to not be angling to get into your pants."

She gave me a very frank look, surprised by my response. Blinking slowly, she held my gaze as those blue eyes seemed to be digging into the back of my skull once again. "You really mean that?"

"Sure." I nodded before exhaling slowly. "Not like I had a chance with you anyway."

She blushed and looked away for a second before rolling her eyes and slapping the side of my arm. "Get off that, will you? Any girl that ends up with you is getting a catch. I just know it."

I sighed. "Well, that makes one of us."

I felt a half-dozen pairs of eyes zero in on us the moment we stepped into view of the Main Lodge. I didn't know whether to feel some measure of pride that I got to walk alone alongside the hottest girl in camp, or to feel embarrassed that she stood a good couple of feet apart from me with her arms across her chest.

In any case, once we got to a fork in the road, she gave me a polite but dismissive "See ya around" and then turned right, heading back up the hill toward the staff cabins. I hesitated for a moment, half-wanting to follow her, but instead I tried to keep my gait as smooth as possible and continued heading straight for the Main Lodge. It was almost dinnertime, and I could see that my friends were waiting for me.

Zoey was the first to approach me, stepping off the porch and coming over to meet me with the other two in tow. About fifteen feet from the deck, she began coolly, "So? Have a nice little conversation with Dolly Bigtits?"

I glanced over at Aaron, the look in my eye questioning just how much he'd told the girls. Aaron shrugged helplessly and explained, "They wanted to know where you went. All I could tell them was that Deedee showed up in the lounge and asked you to go for a walk."

"Nothing else? Not what happened before?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

Aaron blushed but shook his head. "Nah, man. Figured that story better come straight from you."

Marie looked puzzled. "Something happened before?"

I glanced up and noticed that some of the other ranch hands were standing at the deck railing, still within earshot and looking down at us. Gesturing to my friends, I started walking away from the main lodge and off the trail, getting us to a somewhat more private location.

Once we settled down around a fallen log and a couple of boulders, Zoey spoke up again. "Okay, spill it."

"Nothing happened."

"Riiight. You and the blonde bimbo just decided to go for a pleasure cruise."

"Hey, what's with all the name-calling? What the hell did Deedee ever do to you?"

"What?" Zoey flung her hands out. "Is it suddenly off-limits to make fun of big-titted sluts?"

I shook my head. "In a month, exactly what has she done to make you think she's a slut?"

Zoey gave me a hard look. "Wow, must have been some little walk. Twenty minutes and she's got Mister Big Shot here coming to defend her reputation!"

I rolled my eyes and looked to the others while jerking a thumb back at Zoey. "Is it just me, or is Zoey here turning green with envy?"

Aaron chuckled. "I think it's jealousy, bro. Lilith Fair here secretly digs you, and she doesn't like another chick horning in on her man."

Zoey turned around and backhanded him in the chest.

"She has a point, though," Marie spoke up quietly. "Zoey's been calling Deedee names ever since we got here. This is the first time you've said anything about it."

"Hmph," Zoey grunted. "So what's up?"

I shook my head. "Fine, you wanna know the truth? Deedee dragged me into the bushes for a quickie and we fucked like bunnies. Happy?"

Now Zoey rolled her eyes. "You? Yeah, right. You're in much better shape than when you started, but don't start getting delusions of grandeur."

Aaron spoke up. "What really happened?"

I shrugged and took a deep breath. "Okay, it starts with me and Aaron on manure duty."

"Clearly, the quickest path to boinking Miss Bigtits," Zoey drawled.

I chuckled and shook my head. I explained to the girls about the shower-incident, which Aaron confirmed. Everyone had a good laugh over the imagery of me running buck naked down the hallway with my hands over my private parts. I embellished the amount of love handle flab I had jiggling the whole way down. And finally I got down to Deedee asking me to go for a walk.