Smokey Roads

If Sandra was still hurting at all from the experiences she sure didn't show it with the giant smile on her face.

"Kicking that bastard out was the best thing I've ever done." She said after a moment of reflection.

We talked a good bit longer after that and I found out Sandra had done pretty well for herself since her divorce. She was working as a midwife nurse practitioner throughout a good part of eastern Tennessee, mostly in the foothills. She had inherited the farm she lived on from her grandmother a few years ago and up until the divorce grew a small 3 acre tobacco allotment; with her traveling there was nobody to tend to it.

After getting back to the house, I took a good look at the old cars down by the barn, taking photos to show my friend. Since it was getting late in the afternoon and I had to work in the morning, we called it a day and gave each other a very pleasant hug which she broke with a lingering kiss on the cheek.

'I'll probably stop by some evening this week, maybe Thursday, if I hear back from my friend over in Sevierville."

"If I'm not out on a call I'd like that a lot, Mr. Josh Sutton. I'll call you to let you know." She smiled.

I headed back out on the Hootch Road on that late Sunday afternoon like a kid enmeshed in his first schoolyard crush. It had been kind of a 'half date'; not quite a date but with something there other than just a quick social call. For me, Thursday couldn't come quick enough.

Tuesday evenings the BBQ Joint offered all you can eat fried catfish and all the fixings for $9.99 plus drinks. That's thin fried strips of fish, coleslaw, beans, potato salad and Carolina hushpuppies that are the best in the State. June and me used to go back when but this particular evening I strolled in alone and grabbed a booth to read the newspaper while I ate. I wasn't even started on the eating when they walked in, spotted me and all three of them slid into my booth.

"Well, lookie here, it's the long lost traveling man." Dad said to me as he slipped in my side of the booth. Mom and June slid in across from me.

I'd be lying if I said June didn't look real good. She looked better than good and she knew I knew it too.

"I suppose you folks just happened in here with me sitting here all like this?" I asked them, no one in particular.

"We come every Tuesday, Josh. You know that." Mom said.

June just smiled and turned on the twinkle switch for her eyes. Added to her sitting there all nipped out it just made her look that much better.

"That's right, Tuesday catfish and Thursday brisket; the best in all the Carolinas right here." Dad chimed in.

OK, I was corralled and knew it so we all filled our plates at the server line and settled down to eat. I think there was a contest to see who could eat the most. I was competing just to be able to say the least. For me it was probably the most awkward meal I had in a long time but for the three of them it was just like old times.

"Isn't this great? I remember when all four of us would come down here every week like this." Mom said with this big smile on her face.

June was just beaming. I just needed to use the restroom. When I came back Dad started to get up to let me back in but I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, no need Dad. I've got an early morning and I need to call it a night. I'm over in Hickory first thing."

I threw a twenty on the table, smiled wishing everybody a great evening, even June, and headed out the door with an accomplished grin on my face. It was only 6:30PM. Thirty minutes later I was at Boojum's Taproom with a cold pint in front of me.

The Taproom had always been a favorite watering hole and until recently didn't have live entertainment unless you counted the assortment of hillbilly drunks that might wander in by mistake. A couple months earlier Ben and Kelsie, the owners, added a live band on Saturday nights and enough floor space to kick up the heels. It wasn't a favorite spot for June and her cohorts so I made it a regular stop-in. It was also a nice place to hook up with a friendly girl with similar inclinations.

Ben was tending bar that evening and poured my regular Double IPA while I took in the scenery. There were a couple girls playing pool and the regular assortment of early evening guys sipping their pints and watching a game on the screen above the bar.

"It's been a while, stranger. How are you doing?" She asked me over my shoulder as she took the seat next to me.

She looked damn nice as usual but then Terry always looked nice, 'fuckery' nice and perfect for a slow night like this. I hadn't gone out with her since that first time when I meant to push June toward moving on in her life. Obviously it didn't work.

"Well, Terry, I'm doing great and you look like life is treating you good as well." I sincerely complimented her.

"I'm doing OK I guess. It's been a bit slow lately but seeing you here gives a girl hope." She patted my thigh as she said it.

I bought her a beer and we took it to a table in the corner next to the girls shooting pool. We got caught up on the goings on and I learned that the old clique was still getting out on weekends occasionally, even June joining in on the festivities. I didn't ask and Terry didn't offer up any tidbits on who the Ex might be fucking now. It wasn't any of my business but the longer I sat there with her, I knew who I wanted to tap that evening.

A couple hours later she straddled me with her strong, naked thighs and peeled her tight top off her braless tits and brought one of the erect nipples to my waiting mouth. Damn, they were beautiful. I took in the whole package before me and she devoured me. There was no waiting on me for the initiative because she moved from sucking to a sixty nine before flipping on her back, opening that pink vulva and crooking her finger in my direction.

I fucked her twice that night before we both fell asleep in the bed. When the alarm went off and I came back from a morning piss she pushed me back on the bed and sucked my erection into her mouth for a couple of minutes before climbing aboard and riding me cowgirl until I erupted deep inside her pussy.

She didn't have to be to work that morning so I let her lay in bed and hang out at my place.

"Josh, I know you and I aren't going to be a couple or anything but I'd like to keep the fringes on occasion, you know. You up for that?"

After the previous evening and that morning wakeup I was pretty convinced that was a good idea.

"I'm OK with that as long as neither of us is getting serious with somebody."

The same day Sandra called to let me know she would be home Thursday afternoon and evening unless called out for an unexpected delivery. The call made my day actually and I touched base with my friend over in Sevierville and after pulling up his email, I saw that Sandra was about to make a nice chunk of change if she accepted his offer.

When I got home that evening all hell broke loose on the Joshua Sutton place. Terry had made herself at home that morning as I offered and around lunch time June and my Mom stopped by under a pretense of some sort. It wasn't the first time she had done that. She had come up with a list of excuses or my Mom would have her come over for something. It didn't matter if I was there or not. This time she found Terry in nothing but a pair of skimpy panties and one of my cut-off tee shirts.

It was pretty clear what Terry had been there for or at least when I had been there. June lost it. I guess she just wasn't prepared for another woman in what used to be her house and the two of them got into it while my Mom tried to run interference. Other than a few strands of hair and some smeared makeup nobody was hurt much. Somebody knocked over a potted plant but that was about all the physical damage.

About a half an hour after I got home they pulled into the yard; Mom, Dad and June. Now I don't know what they assumed they were going to accomplish but I cracked a long neck and waited for them to come in. Mom started first.

"Joshua, I don't know what kind of house you run here but having tramps run through it all hours of the day and night is not right."

Dad just kind of sat there not saying anything because he knew better. I looked at June askance and then back at Mom.

"Ok, well, then. How old am I, Mom?"

"30"

"How long have I been living on my own?"

"I guess since you were 19."

"That's right, since I was 19. Now I've lived in this house since I was 24, right?" She nodded in agreement.

"Now, am I a married man, Mom?"

"Well, you were and you should be –"

I cut her off at that point.

"I was, that's right but now, I'm not. See how that works? Now, next question. Who are the tramps you are talking about, Mom? I'm asking that because as far as I know there was only one tramp that ever occupied this house and I caught her with her tramp legs spread wide and another man buried deep inside her. So who are the tramps running through my house? I'd like to know."

Both Mom and June sat there on the couch dumbfounded and unable to say anything. Dad started to mumble something about not talking to Mom that way but he stopped himself before he buried himself too deep in the crap so I continued.

"So let me be honest about some things here. I pretty much own this place and being a 30 year old adult who's not married to anybody and since I'm not a monk or something, I like a bit of fun company once in a while."

"You could always have me." June blurted out with her big tears. I just laughed and took another swig.

"I had you and look how that turned out. OK, so here is how it's going to be. I don't want anybody walking into my house in the middle of the day when I'm not here. I didn't make a big deal out of it in the past but now I'm telling y'all. I'm going to change the locks if I can't trust you.

"Just as important, if I've got company that you don't like, don't visit. Come back some other time and we'll grill up a burger or something but if I've got a hot one running around inside my single man's home, what do you think that looks like to have Mom and Dad trying to throw water on the party, eh?"

I had to grin at the three of them. "Now, do any of you want a beer or something to drink? You too, June."

Mom and Dad got themselves something to drink and pulled some icebox chicken out of the fridge. I took June out to my workshop.

"Listen, I'm going to lay down the damn law here. You've got no cause to come into my house and bitch about the company I keep or anything else going on in my life, June; none whatsoever. You're fucking somebody now, I know. I've never figured that one out. Why do you think it's OK if some guy's fucking the beejesus out of you but you get in a tangle if Suzie Q, Jill up the hill and, yes, even Terry is getting some loving you threw away for that prick Charlie?

"You did this to us, June, not me. I don't have a clue who you're giving it out to now and to be honest, I don't really care, I don't. So, it comes down to this; You need to start acting civil and get on with your life and stop trying to trip me up with my own parents.

"I know they love you and you love them. I get it but I want you to lay off Terry. She didn't do anything to you and I didn't do anything to you for that matter."

She had her eyes down to the ground and when she looked I could see the pain in them. I knew she still loved me but in spite of it she couldn't keep that peckerwood fuck out of her pussy even when she was trying to 'win me back'.

We went back into the house and Mom and Dad were kicked back watching some old TV show. By the time they all left, I was finished, except for a call to Terry. I needed to apologize for the family brouhaha.

The next day during lunch at a local diner, June's sister Ann slid into the booth across from me.

"Hi, Josh. You are looking good as always."

As I've noted, I always liked Ann and appreciated her kindness.

"I talked with June this morning and she told me about the 'episode' as she put it yesterday. I think she gets it, Josh, I really do. I hate to see it final and all like this and you know how I feel. Hell, if you weren't my brother in law, and hey, you always will be, I'd make a play for you myself.

"I'm going to try to get her steered onto another path for a while and see what happens but like I said, whatever you two talked about must have clicked with her because she told me she's going to try to move on."

"That's good to hear, Ann, and I appreciate you being there for her. You know I've always loved her but I could never put up with what she did."

"Yeah, she knows that. She's got some hang-up on that waste of a man she's had since before you met her but I think now she realizes he cost her everything."

I just nodded and we chatted a bit longer before she excused herself to go back to work. I picked up the tab and headed into the mountains for a trip to Tennessee.

Sandra was tending her garden when I arrived at her place that Thursday and the dogs announced my arrival as expected. It was hot as hell that day and she was dressed for it; very short cut-off jeans and a tight tank top v neck tee, nothing else. I did everything I could to keep from gluing my eyes on her very erect nipples poking through the thin fabric.

She ran up to meet me and gave me a hug before we went into the house to fix a cold drink.

"My babies like you now." She said pointing to the panting dogs lying prone across the kitchen floor.

"I'd just as soon they told me that themselves," I kidded.

She fixed herself an iced tea and gave me a cold beer. A few minutes later we got into the details of selling her car collection. My friend in Sevierville offered to sell them at auction on an 8% commission with a guaranteed floor of $65K for the lot. I thought it was a good deal for the condition they were in and Sandra agreed to proceed.

With that out of the way we kicked back on the porch enjoying the beverages in the late afternoon heat of the day.

"You want to go swimming?" She asked me with a grin on her face. "Daddy dug it out wider and deeper a couple years ago and it's a pretty good hole, especially on a day like this."

"I didn't bring any swimming trunks."

"Don't need them, there's nobody around."

Well, I'm not bashful around the ladies and I know I'm not lacking body wise so I agreed while trying to wipe a giant grin off my face. We grabbed a couple beers and towels for the walk to the backside of the property and when we arrived, Sandra just pulled her shorts and top off, flung them on a branch and jumped in the creek fed pond.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a bit hesitant but I just shrugged and started pulling off the clothes. When I was just as naked as Sandra I launched myself into the pond and came up in water to my shoulders. Sandra was next to me with a big happy smile on her face.

"I used to come here as a little girl when my grandma was here. We'd both jump in and skinny dip on hot days like this; great memories. There used to be a couple boys living down the road a piece that used to spy on us girls until Grandma had her dog stand guard."

"The closest thing I had as a kid for a swimming hole was when a couple of us would get over to Jonathan Creek and hop in but that water was COLD!" I laughed at the memory.

I dove under the water and swam for a bit before surfacing right next to Sandra. When I came up our faces were only inches apart and I looked right into her wet blue eyes. In the next moment her arms were around my neck.

"I like you, Josh Sutton, I like you a lot."

With that she pressed her lips to mine with a lingering kiss. My hands found her waist but I didn't explore other than to pull her close in the water. When we broke our kiss she looked up at me and I told her.

"Ms. Sandra, I've had a school boy crush on you ever since the first time we met."

"Good, you can take me out to eat this evening instead of eating in."

With that, we swam a bit more and pulled ourselves out of the pond. After drying off and walking back to the house we headed into Cosby proper. It should be pointed out that there are not a lot of options in Cosby for fine dining but there is Magnolia Tree and they have a fine brisket so that's where we headed. They gave us a nice table out of the way and I had the best dining experience I had in a long time, all due to the company of the woman I was with.

I don't think there was anything we didn't talk about at some point and by the time we got out of there it was getting dark and I still had to get her home. We pulled into the gravel drive around 9:30 and I walked her to the door and kissed her with Sampson and Delilah watching intently.

"There is no need for you to drive to Sevierville tonight, Josh. I have a guest room all made up. You can have a good breakfast and head out as early as you wish."

Her smiling invitation was all it took to convince me and after calling to my hotel and cancelling the evening reservation I spent the night, in her guest room and not her bed, and she sent me off on my day's work in the morning with an old fashioned country breakfast. This time I made a date; for Saturday afternoon and dinner in Gatlinburg.

That Saturday evening we spent the night in a bed & breakfast in the village of Gatlinburg and we made love until the wee hours of the morning. Sandra was very different from the previous women in my life, particularly June and certainly Terry. She was sensual and practiced with her body almost as if sex was an art form for her without inhibitions or any sense of modesty. She used her entire body as an instrument for our mutual pleasure. I don't know where she learned it but I knew then her ex-husband was a damn fool.

From that point on we began our courtship and continued our somewhat semi-distanced get-togethers more often with my staying at her place and the occasional journey by Sandra to Waynesville. I got to meet her Daddy who was a bit cautious of me until Sandra had a private talk with him. I don't know what she told him but he was always pleasant with me from that point on...

.....It was on a bright and sunny Saturday morning while wetting a dry fly across a series of ripples on Big Creek that I made a decision to take the next big step in my life. As soon as the notion gelled in my mind, the line on my fly rod popped hard and the rip of the reel chased the line until I caught it with my thumb and the fight was on. A few minutes later after enjoying the play I pulled in a one and a half pound brown trout. It was a good sign to me and a conformation that life was going well...

Later that afternoon Sandra and me drove back to Waynesville and decided to make an evening of it over in Asheville. As it turned out we ended up at the dance hall out on Patton where I had spent so many nights with the clique from the 'old days'. I hadn't had much time with the old group of friends including Terry. Once I became serious with Sandra that relationship had to go on permanent hiatus.

Well, I should have known I'd run across a lot of people I knew. Terry was there with her current male flavor of the evening as were several of the old gang including a few from the hospital where both Terry and June still worked. I saw her from across the floor. June was with some guy I didn't know and she seemed happy.

June had done well to move on and had even apologized to me for wrecking our marriage. She was still treated like a daughter by my parents and to be honest that didn't bother me at all. Of course she didn't know I was in a serious relationship and this would be the first time she would see me with Sandra.

Sandra and me danced a few numbers and were socializing at the bar when June came up behind me.