Violet started her new job today, and so did my super-secret plan. We both left the house after petting Oliver his farewell and filling his bowl but headed on our separate ways at the front. I had told her I’d spend the morning walking around town, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Well, actually, it was true the part that I’d be walking, just not in town. For that, I took the bus to the closest stop from my destination.

I was having an odd feeling as I came inside the bus and sat down. Once I looked at the empty seat beside me, I realised that it was me missing Violet. I had never taken the bus before meeting her, and when I started, she was a constant factor in my trips.

Well, not today because I was on a mission! A mission of my own design, but one that I’d make it worth it: I was to explore the woods in search of hidden nooks and crannies, points of interest and oddities, and other such things for Violet to see. I suppose the others could enjoy it too, but really, my babe was the sole reason I was doing this.

After a ten-minute ride through empty streets, I hopped off the bus and set route towards the road that led into the woods. A little further after passing the treeline, I spotted a sign that indicated a—once familiar—trekking path. I wasn’t exactly looking for a well-walked path, but for the first day scouting, it was probably better that I followed it and keep myself from chasing white rabbits.

There wasn’t much of a breeze and the sun had yet to become harsh, but the pine trees and eucalypts would provide enough shade to be comfortable for someone like Violet later in the day. It was also very fragrant and easy to walk through, the early morning air amplifying it. Every once in a while, there would be a root or two forming a bump, but not one you’d easily stub your toe and trip.

Despite the nice atmosphere, I was still feeling a bit disappointed after having walked for more than an hour, having just about reached my return point for the day. There really wasn’t much to see that was remarkable.

“Is this all?” I grumbled, taking my phone out to check if there were any satellite or aerial pictures of the surrounding area that could justify me coming another day to try reach the end of the trail.

I did manage to find some satellite pictures, but they were a few years old, making their validity a bit dubious.

“Are you lost my dear?”

In front of me was an old couple. I was a bit surprised by their sudden appearance, but perhaps they came back to the marked path after a detour. The man was a bit burly, hunched and covered his bald head with a cap while the woman wore a straw hat, shades, and had a hiking walking stick. Both wore an inviting smile as they closed the gap between us.

I thanked their worry and told them I wasn’t joking when saying that you’d have to be very directionally-impaired to get lost in such a straight-forward path.

“Are your parents nearby?” the lady asked me, sounding a bit worried.

“I might not look like it, but I’m turning eighteen next year,” I told her with a light laugh. Maybe it was because I was usually attached to Violet, but I almost forgot that people sometimes asked me that, getting confused by my appearance.

I took the opportunity of meeting an old couple doing a hike to ask if they were from the area and after they told me they’ve been living close by for the past fifteen years, I asked if they knew any interesting spots off the track.

“My husband certainly does,” she told me while placing a hand over his shoulder. “Even before we moved here, he spent all of his summers coming to this place and even worked as a trail keeper.”

“That I do,” he confirmed with a tip of his head. “Looking for thrills, a place to relax and think about life or…?”

“…A place for me and my sweetheart to spend some time together.”

“Ah! I know just the place!”

“It’s got to be that place!” his wife added.

With so much build up, I had to ask them to point that spot in the map.

As was perhaps typical of old folks, they didn’t want to use the map in my phone because “we can’t figure out how that contraption works,” and used the paper map they carried in their backpack instead.

The spot they marked, they told me, was a small pond with a creek a bit out of the way—awesome—and uphill—not so awesome—making it an overall great spot for me and Violet to visit. I also got from them a place we could camp with our friends that should be only a couple of minutes away from it.

“And these places, are they still as you described them?”

“It’s been years since I went there, but if they are, it’s well worth the walk,” the old man assured me.

“Hmm, I guess I’ll check them out next time. Thanks for the tips.”

“Do let us know if they are as we remember them if you do go there,” they told me.

When asked, they told me they were headed the opposite way I was, so I thanked them and wished the rest of a good day for the couple.

I was burning with curiosity to check out the places, but I had to go back home to Violet.

♥♥♥

While scrubbing away the sweat and dust out of Abby’s back and hair, I was wondering where she had gone to get this dirty, and why she was looking so pleased with herself. What a mystery she was at times. And yes, I did ask her, but she just shrugged it off and pulled me into the bathroom for us to take a shower together while I told her about my day at work.

It honestly hadn’t felt like work at all, to be frank.

I arrived and was immediately greeted by Margaret and Mathilda, the latter having heard it was my first day from Mrs. Fletcher and so, invited herself to “watch over me.” I thought that meant making jokes left and right, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that had been a mistake. If anything, she gave me plenty of complements.

“What kind of compliments?” Abby moaned as I gave her scalp a good scrubbing that she obviously was loving when I got to that part of my story.

“That I was good at waiting tables and such,” I told her. “She also asked if you could do her hair like you did mine for her next date with Stephen.”

“Hehe, sure! If she pays, that is!” Abby laughed with pure mischief. “My wifey is the only one who gets freebees.”

And if we were to break-up, would I be presented with a huge bill? Scary.

Going back a bit to my work, it had been unbelievably nice. The boss—Mrs Fletcher, was so nice that I, Mathilda, Margaret and the old lady from the kitchen, Ratchel, joined her for tea before I left.

The co-workers were also amazing. It was the first time meeting Ratchel, and even so, she had me sit by her in the kitchen and fed me a bunch of cookies, some that she offered and I brought for Abby to try too. She was the spitting example of a granny, all the way down to the small frame glasses and bun of grey hair.

Gustav, the butler, was so gentlemanly that he’d constantly offer to carry a tray he thought was too heavy for a girl to carry, me and Margaret having to remind him that we were supposed to do that to ease his workload. His steps were still as quiet as featherfall, catching me by surprise at least five times.

What left the biggest impression were the guests.

The place looked… well, it was a palace, and they dressed in nice clothes and had fancy cars, but they were also simple to talk to. One man in particular exceeded everybody else.

Imagine the image of an old man, slightly thin-framed, with his hair neatly slicked back under a straw boater hat, white pants with spectator shoes, a white and blue sports jacket in thick stripes with a white silk handkerchief and a white shirt. He noticed right away my presence in the dining room and offered me a smile and tipped his hat before taking a seat and signalling me to approach. By the time of his arrival, the room was mostly empty, so when he started chatting me up, I indulged in it.

“Hello, young lady!” he said after I wished him a good morning. “I’m Jacob Ornstein, local resident of this fine place. I don’t believe I’ve seen you before around here.”

“Nice meeting you, Mr. Ornstein. I’m—”

“No, please! Just call me Jacob!” he told me with the same charming, movie-star smile under his pencil-moustache.

“Very well, erm, Jacob. As I was saying, I’m Violet. Violet Evergreen.”

“A lovely name for a lovely lady!” he told me with nods. “If you allow my rudeness, may I know your age?”

“I turned seventeen not that long ago.”

“Seventeen and working during summer? There may still be hope for today’s youth after all. Making money to pay for your driver’s license perhaps?”

“N-no, erm… a… a wedding ring.”

He widened his eyes and nodded, seeming very pleased with my answer.

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“Today’s young folk really are something else,” he hummed. “When’s the wedding?”

“We are thinking about April, after I turn eighteen.”

He nodded again, still smiling.

“May your marriage be a blessed one. Now, what is Miss Ratchel’s offerings to break the guests fasting?”

That set us back on track to the usual guest/waiter relationship.

One of, if not, the most pleasant man I’ve ever had the pleasure talking with.

“As much as me?”

“Fufu, no. Not by a long shot.”

“Yay!”

At first, I thought he spoke with an accent, but as I talked about it with Abby, I realised that he just took a lot of care in the way he enunciated his words.

As for his fashion sense… I liked it, but I couldn’t deny that he looked like one of those carnival guys minus the walking stick.

On another note…

Haah, I’m already missing the water.

What was even the point in showering if we were already all sweaty five seconds later!? During summer, if I could, I’d turn into a fish and live inside a carefully controlled tank.

“Wanna go for a second dip in the water?” Abby asked, wiggling her toes as she stretched in her seat on the couch.

If that wasn’t wasteful, I’d be pulling her back into the bathroom, but since that wasn’t the case, the fan would have to suffice to cool us down.

“Where’s Oliver?” I asked, noticing his empty bed.

“Hehe, follow me!”

I didn’t want to move, but Abby was waving me with her usual contagious enthusiasm, so I hoisted my body up. Just as I got up, she grabbed my hand by the fingers and pulled me behind her.

I completely forgot my reluctance as I looked at our entangled fingers. It was a bit sweaty, and it felt like it could easily be undone.

“Enjoying the view babe?” she asked, calling me back to Earth. “I do have a nice bum after all.”

“You know I wasn’t staring at it!” I rebutted, much to her amusement.

I wasn’t but…. I was now. She was wearing one of my shirts that fully covered it, but the waving motion as she walked would sometimes hug her figure there and… Look, she’s my bride, and it was nice to see, ok?

She opened the back door as quietly as possible while peeking outside. Then, she waved me to take a look too.

Where we had sat on the previous day on folding chairs we started keeping there were some bowls we used to cool our feet in water as we relaxed. One such bowl had been refilled and Oliver was inside, chin on the rim and looking at us with eyes that were just slightly open.

“Sis came by for breakfast and to spend some time with Papa Stan and prepared that for Oliver,” she told me.

So that’s where she was while I was at the B&B. I had thought it strange to not see her around, but I had assumed she was either at the office, or perhaps at her place. So, she took the opportunity that I was out to come spend time with my dad? Really sneaky of her, but not something I disapproved. Unlike me and Abby, they had a harder time finding the opportunity to spend time together.

“Humph, lucky cat,” I chuckled.

“Think I can fit in one of those?”

“Only if you shrink in the wash,” I joked.

She laughed and grabbed my hand in the same way than before.

“Where are we going now?”

“I need another shower,” Abby said with a wry smile. “My wifey forgot to rub me behind my ears.”

“Did she now?” I asked, returning her smile.

Wasteful as it was to take another shower, it was equally as wasteful, if not even more, not to take the opportunity for us to indulge ourselves while nobody else was at home.

♥♥♥

She told me she wouldn’t sleep, but I’d only believe that if I didn’t know her already. A bit after resting her head on my legs, she was already out.

We were outside, where Oliver was. We had put on our swimsuits and took a blanket to sit on. I also put on Oliver some shades and a cone hat that I made in a rush with holes for his ears on as a joke. He did no effort in taking them off, so he was looking extra comical.

We must have been there for a little over an hour judging by how much I was yawning as I tried to read my book. The book I first started with had been abandoned, sadly. It got a bit too depressive for my taste. This one on the other hand was more in line with me. A phantasy book about a boy and his talking horse on their way to the magical kingdom from where the horse had been taken. Unfortunately, I’d start yawning like crazy after a while, forcing me to stop because I couldn’t see anything from how watery my eyes got. A shame that I had to stop when the story was at an interesting point, but hey, I could now play with the hair of my sleeping better half.

Since we took a second shower, I applied a good dose of conditioner to her hair. That worked nicely because her hair was now smoother than silk, feeling great as it escaped through my fingers.

As I wiggled my toes and stretched my body as a nice breeze blew through them, thinking about how nice the second shower was because I teased her, I heard the front door opening. Soon after, Stan opened the door and silently greeted me with a wave that I returned.

“Is she sleeping?” he asked in a low tone.

“I’m not,” Violet moaned as she raised her head.

When she was done rubbing her eyes, I took her glasses off my top from where they hanged and placed them on her face, letting my fingers gently caress her still sleepy face as I retreated my hands.

“Babe?” I called, thinking it was weird for her to stare so intently to my cleavage with her dad taking a seat by us.

“We should put something on,” she told me, now looking me in my eyes.

Instead of normal clothes, we had put on our swimsuits. That was what she was worried about.

“Babe, these are bikinis! BI-KI-NIS! There’s nothing wrong with us wearing them around the house.”

She still wasn’t convinced, but she wasn’t arguing back either. What she decided to do instead was invite me to sit between her legs and, once I took my place, she crossed her arms over my chest and lifted her knees like she was trying to hide me.

“Hmm, I’ll go grab a beer after all,” Papa Stan said as he pulled himself out of his seat.

“…Do I have a hickey somewhere?” I asked Violet quietly.

“No… maybe it’s because we just made love.”

“Pfft, hehe! How silly of you,” I giggled as I smooched her lips. “And that was more than an hour ago.”

“Hmm… I slept for that long?” she hushed as she caressed my cheek and moved in for another kiss.

I asked her why she had French-kissed me without warning as I hid my lips behind a hand after she pulled her head back. I wasn’t expecting that at all after a normal kiss, so I let out a moan and was now feeling my face rather hot.

“Payback from earlier,” she told me with a sadistic smile.

“Meany,” I whined as I hid my face on her neck, causing her to giggle.

Her dad came back, can in hand, and sat back in his chair after filling a bowl with water and taking his socks off. After a pleased sigh, he looked at us and asked if we weren’t hot.

Jokingly, I told him that yes, we were hot and thanked him for the compliment. A stupid joke, but one that gave me an idea.

I texted sis, asking if she was free and telling her to come to Violet’s place and bring a swimsuit. When she finally answered, it was asking why she’d do that. I explained that Violet and I were at the back enjoying the shade and the quietude. I also sent a picture of Oliver to better sell the idea of her joining us.

With that, she told me she’d be there as soon as she was done shopping with Claire. That was about half an hour later.

As soon as I heard the front door unlock, I went inside to meet her.

“And since when do you have a key?” I asked as I greeted her by the entrance.

“H-he gave it to me this morning,” she said, happily blushing. “Since I come here so often to check on Oliver.”

“Riiight. That totally is why he gave you that,” I laughed. “Anyway, did you bring the goods?”

“The swimsuit, you mean? Yeah, but I still have to put it on.”

I latched onto her arm and pulled her along to the bedroom where she could change.

“My God, this place is an oven!” she said as I got her inside. “How can you girls sleep here!?”

“Naked, uncovered and with a fan on all night,” I blurted out.

“I didn’t need to—”

“Anyway, get changed and join us at the back pronto!”

I’d get an earful from Violet if she found out that I shared that kind of stuff with sis. A deserved one, but one that I’d try not to let happen.

Violet asked what I was up to, not believing me for one second when I told her that I was up to nothing. She was proven correct when Sophie walked outside in a light-blue bikini of her own.

“S-Stan!” she gasped once she saw him as she tried to cover herself as best as she could with her hands.

“Oh, erm… y-you look great,” he stammered as he looked her up and down. Quite the understatement, something that I let him know, but he was a bit lost for words when faced with the overwhelming beauty of my sister. Well, silence can speak volumes too, even more than words at times, so…

“…T-thanks,” Sophie whimpered. Then, something came up to her mind and her whole demeanour changed.

She placed her hands on her hips and stood right in front of Papa Stan with a very stern face as she leaned slightly over him.

“We need to talk!” she told him.

“…Ok.”

“….”

Before she continued talking, she had to place a hand under his chin and lift his head up a bit more so his eyes where back on her face. Her stern look got a bit ruined by her blush, but she carried on with what she wanted to tell him.

“We need to get an AC in their bedroom! It’s too hot in there!”

“An AC? I already asked Violet about that, but she—”

“I don’t care! It’s too hot in there! For goodness’ sake, they have to…”

She paused and looked around, lowering her voice into a hush before continuing.

“They have to strip down and sleep on the bed with a fan on all night.”

“A-Abby!” Violet shouted right into my ear.

“Please, forgive me! It was a slip up!” I shouted back.

Stan cleared his throat, making us all calm down. With silence restored, he said he’d take care of that. Violet immediately protested, but surprisingly enough, who argued with her was Sophie.

“Look, I understand that you think it’s not needed since you and Abby will be moving out when you go to university, but the truth of the matter is, you’ll still live here for another year, and you’ll be coming back and staying during the summer holidays for at least another three. I simply can’t allow you two to be in a room like that. And if it’s about the money, since I’m the one insisting on it and I’m Abby’s sister, I’ll cover half the costs, ok? I simply cannot let this go on without doing anything about it if I’m to be honest.”

Violet looked at me while thinking. It’s not that she was waiting for me to give an answer, it was because I had a calming effect on her. In these situations, that is.

Anyway, after mulling over Sophie’s arguments, she relented with a nod and a quiet “thanks.”

“Hehe, so sure have a nice stepmother,” I joked.

“I’m not her stepmother,” Sophie pointed out.

“Technically? Yes. Literally? Not yet.”

“Humph!” she huffed as she crossed her arms. She then looked back at Papa Stan who still had his eyes locked on her, if only towards her rear instead of her chest this time. After a couple of seconds, she lightly slapped his shoulder and told him to stop ogling her.

“Sorry, it’s just… words fail to describe how beautiful you are,” he said, as he composed himself.

My sister was looking like she was about to make a run for it, so I got up and hugged her from behind.

“Stan, instead of leaving sis standing around, could you please prepare her a chair?” I asked him as I hanged from sis.

While he worked on my request, I pulled my sister down to give her some guidance. He gave her two compliments, but she only thanked him once, and it was kind of weak. Surely, she could do better than that, right?

“…Thanks,” she stammered after smooching his cheek after she sat down by him. “F-for the compliment, I mean.”

“…It really looks good on you.”

“Y-you really think so? Claire said you— she had me buying it today.”

Those two can be so clunky, but what should I expect? Sophie had zero experience, and Stan had been away from dating for so long that you might as well say the same thing about him. It was super endearing though. They obviously liked each other a lot. And Stan’s reaction when seeing Sophie was super funny.

“I still think you’re the prettier of the two,” my girlfriend whispered into my ear, her lips tickling it.

“Pfft, hehe! Stop it!” I told her as I had one of my giggling fits.