"I think Veronica has a boyfriend," said Terri McCarthy. She was "elbow deep" in a server trying to upgrade a cooling control board, the unit that controls the seven onboard cooling fans of each server. Terri is a young Canadian girl of medium height and average weight with straight jet black hair cut at shoulder length. She says she's such a badass that she cuts her hair with a chain saw, and the jagged edges of her hairline make that claim seem plausible. She's a great technician but she will say the strangest things just to get a reaction out of people.

"Yeah, I know," said her manager, Josh Gravely, "It's me, I'm her boyfriend. Are you ready for this controller card or not?" He had the replacement for the controller in a static proof bag in one hand and a tech bulletin from the server manufacturer in the other. He was following the steps of the replacement process carefully, these controller cards cost over two thousand dollars each and he didn't want any mistakes.

"No really Josh, I was being serious." Terri has huge dark brown 'anime eyes', a narrow face and a tiny pointed nose giving her a mousy appearance. As she got the last screw removed and was freeing the old controller card she said, "I think she's seeing someone. She's suddenly all happy n' shit."

"Ground yourself," he replied before taking the old card from her, "what makes you think that it isn't me?"

Terri touched the grounding point on the work bench preventing any static electricity from harming the new circuit card. "Serious Josh!" Terri was wound up, ready to share the wisdom and knowledge that her twenty-one years on this earth has bestowed upon her "First of all, you're like a half a million years older than her, and secondly, she was a fashion model! She travelled all over the world! She's way out of your league."

"I've travelled all over the world too," Josh insisted as he held the work light for Terri.

"Yeah, and shot the shit out of it, she was Miss America for fuck's sake!" Terri insisted as she started to line up the screws to install the card. Jake was part of a gun crew on an AC-130 gunship and deployed to dozens of hotspots around the world and took part in military actions some of which will remain classified long after he's dead. Personally, Terri thinks that military people were mindless robots, hitmen and murderers working for corrupt, evil regimes. But she also thinks that Josh is pretty cool so he's the exception that proves the rule, and therefore it's obvious (to Terri) that gunships must be ok. Also, her hero Veronica van Köster always dances at company parties with a man who is a major in the NY National Guard and wears his dress uniform when they dance, so the NY National Guard must be cool also. What she doesn't know is that Veronica wasn't Miss America, she didn't make the top ten, so she remained Miss Ohio.

"You need to look for someone a little closer to your style," Terri continued. The card was in, now came the hard part, putting the server back together. The cooling controller card was buried so deep into the server's architecture you had to take much of it apart to get to the card which wasn't much bigger than a man's pocket comb.

"What about you? What are you doing Friday night?" smiled Josh, knowing what she would say, and she didn't disappoint.

"ME? Whoa baby, you're still punching 'way above your weight class. You need to find someone who you can get all weepy with over Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street and be asleep in bed before nine thirty."

"I cry at the end of It's a Wonderful Life," said Josh as he held a cooling duct in place for Terri to secure with several screws.

"See? Everyone knows that movie is a laugh riot. There, I'm gonna fire it up and see if it works." Terri hit the power switch and the server came to life. With all those cooling fans inside of it, it sounds like a hover craft more than a computer.

Josh heard a beep, so he checked his work phone and found that he had just received a message from Veronica which said, "Do you have a minute?" He looked at Terri with what he hoped was a nervous look on his face and said, "I'm going to ask her to dance with me at the party," as he typed a response to Veronica the Executive Assistant to his employer the founder and CEO of Andalon.com.

"You're what?" Terri made 'what' sound like "WAAAAAA?"

"I am, she just texted her and she wants to speak with me. While I'm over there I'm going to ask her."

"Oh, I GOTTA see this!" grinned Terri. She turned to Jennifer Combs, her "partner in crime," a field technician who seemed to spend most of her time in the server room with Terri. Jen looks like what Terri calls a "twinkie:" long thick blond hair, hazel eyes, very cute face with pointed chin, short with a delicious hourglass figure; she looks like she's a high school cheerleader. She's got a bubbly personality but rarely says anything unless asked directly. She's actually 10 years older than Terri with several degrees and is one of the best network engineers that Josh has ever met, her specialty is designing and maintaining their customer's in-house networks. "Come on Jen, we gotta see this. Mister Gunship is going to get shot down again!"

"That's Sergeant Gunship to you..."

"Ok!" chirped Jen and she with Terri tagged along behind Josh as he wound through the code writers "bull pen," through the marketing area with the salesmen making their calls and bragging to each other about their recent contacts, finally to "executive avenue" where the doors opened to a lush waiting area and the grandiose main entrance. There were five doors to the three different vice president's offices, the CEO Anthony "Ant" Friedman's office, and between the VPs and the CEO's office is the office of Ant's executive assistant, Veronica van Köster.

Veronica was heading back to her office from the break room with a hot cup of tea. Tall, trim and beautiful, a full lion's mane of blond hair, brown eyes, a beautifully proportioned face, and a dazzling smile. As she approached she saw Josh with Terri and Jen standing outside of her office door. Veronica gave them a stern look and said to Josh "We need to talk." She opened the office door and held up a hand, "Give me a moment." She swept into her office leaving the door ajar slightly.

After a long nervous pause, Terri whispered, "I don't think this will be a good time to ask."

"Naaah," said Josh quietly as they waited, "it'll be fine."

"Mr. Gravely, come in please," Ms. van Köster called from the depths of her executive office.

"Hope you have your flack vest on," said Terri softly in a sing-song voice as she tried to follow Josh into the office.

"Just you Mr. Gravely," said Veronica without looking up from her desk, "and close the door behind you."

Josh closed the door as Terri held up an imaginary bugle and hummed a few bars of "Taps." Just as the door clicked closed the electronic sign next to the door switched status from 'Out, be back soon' to 'Conference, do not disturb.' At Andalon.com doors are rarely locked, normally the sign will simply say 'In Conference' meaning you can poke your nose in if you have pressing company business. Do not disturb is rarely used, Terri has been working with Andalon.com since she was in high school when Andalon was a little computer repair company in Buffalo and she has only seen do not disturb a handful of times.

The founder and CEO of Andalon.com, Anthony "Ant" Friedman stepped up to his office door along with his wife of many years Marjorie. Ant is a short, smiling, happy-go-lucky kind of guy with a sharp sense of business and a passion for customer satisfaction, but also with a deep love of everything Sci-Fi. His wife Marjorie is taller than Ant, she too always carries a smile. She's tall and thin with barely a hint of breasts and a thick mane of black hair with a streak of gray on each temple. Considering the fact that they have seven children, Terri is surprised her hair isn't all gray. "Good morning, Terri, Jen, what's up?" asked Anthony cheerily.

"We come to watch Veronica shoot Josh down, but she locked us out of the office!" whined Terri. Jen nodded in agreement.

"Oh? asked Marjorie, "Why would Ms. van Köster want to shoot down Josh?"

"She called him into her office and Josh said he was going to ask her to dance with him at the party. It's going to be awful!" Terri grinned in morbid glee. Jen nodded in agreement as she and Terri followed Ant into his office. Anthony's office was a shrine to Science Fiction

"That sounds serious, I hope Mr. Gravely doesn't get too discouraged," said Ant as he tapped on the connecting door to Veronica's office and peeked in. Inside her office he saw Josh sitting on a chair facing Veronica's desk and Veronica was straddling Josh's lap. The couple was enjoying a deep, passionate kiss. Without breaking the kiss Veronica waved her fingers at her boss.

Ant closed the door and turned to Terri and Jen. "She's really giving him a hard time about something," he said with a sad expression on his face and hoping against hope he can hold the laughter back.

Marjorie, who had peeked over her husband's shoulder agreed. "She is certainly giving him the business." Her expression "the business" was their euphemism for sex which Marjorie and Anthony used when 'little ears' were listening. Anthony's cough of stifled laughter told Marjorie that her husband understood her insinuation.

"Ok, you two are welcome to stay," said Ant desperately trying to restrain the laughs. He moved to his desk as the company VPs started to walk into the office, "we'll be discussing upcoming billing cycles..."

"That's ok," said Terri as she ushered Jen toward the door, "I've got to go uh... water the servers, yeah, that's it, and Jen needs to do... technical stuff." Jen nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile Josh and Veronica finally broke their kiss, Josh's head was spinning, he loves it when this beautiful woman is aggressive, and this kiss was a shining example of the sexual demon they have released. For years she was a toy of powerful men, she sort of enjoying sex, but deep down she knew it could be better. Then came the day that Josh told her, "You drive, I'll try to keep up with you," and her entire outlook on sex changed, instead of fitting into a mold that this guy wants, she met a man who will let her be Veronica.

"Mmmm, that was wonderful," he whispered in her ear as they nuzzled, trying to catch their breath.

"Have you found a place for us to practice yet?" she asked breathlessly as they broke their kiss. They needed room to practice for their dance at the company holiday party in a few weeks. Veronica was an outstanding dancer; ballroom dancing was her talent for the Miss America pageant, and she always dances with her dancing coach at the company holiday party. It has become sort of a tradition, no one dances until Miss van Köster shows everyone how it's done.

They can't practice in Josh's 600 square foot apartment and the only room in Veronica's house big enough is filled with a pool table, so they're looking for places to dance. "I was going to ask my buddy Paul if we can use the loft in his barn," Josh began but a disparaging look from Veronica almost stopped him in his tracks. Yet he continued, "My buddy Gus, who's a contractor in Springville..."

"Mr. Didomissio?"

"Yeah him. He said that the floor in Paul's library is perfect for what we need. It's a big empty room in Paul's house, let's go look at it right after work."

Five minutes later Josh stepped out of the office with Veronica behind him. Seeing Terri and Jen waiting in the reception area Veronica quickly dropped her smile. "I don't think we need to cover this anymore," she said firmly then closed the door behind him and turned to join the billing cycle meeting in Ant's office.

Terry and Jen were standing in the reception area, and they saw the whole thing, "Wow, that was brutal!" grinned Terri as they hurried up to Josh. "What happened when you asked her? Did she slap you?"

"No, she informed me that she always dances with some army guy," said Josh, which was the truth however they established that fact last week when they were stuck in the building during the blizzard.

After work Josh swung by his apartment and grabbed some clothing, threw it in a duffel bag and headed south to Springville, the next sizable town on "The 219." There he swung by Veronica's house where she saw him coming up the street and trotted out to the curb to meet him. She was dressed in a designer ski jacket and a warm, fluffy knit hat which somehow looked warm and insulated yet also accentuated her athletic figure. She ran out to the curb and hopped into his Jeep. "Mmmm, God! You look like such a snow bunny," he said as they kissed.

"I've been told I fuck like a bunny too," she whispered in his ear and nipped his ear lobe.

"Who would say such a crude thing to you?" asked Josh in faux shock.

"I think that was you on Saturday night, you know in front of the fireplace? After all that wine and sex?"

"Come on snow bunny, let's go dancing, then maybe dinner at Worzil's?"

The snow was falling gently as they drove around the park across from Veronica's house and pulled up in front of a huge Victorian home two blocks from her home. The house was amazing, it was huge with a massive covered porch around three quarters of the house, it was surrounded by a waist high ornate iron fence bedecked with holly garland which had little clusters of red lights. The front window of the house had to be fifteen feet tall and it framed a huge, spectacular Christmas tree. "Your fishing buddy Paul lives here?"

"Yep, he's an Air Force veteran too," said Josh as he opened the iron gate surrounding the front lawn and escorted Victoria up to the front door. "He used to be a flight surgeon, the sworn enemy of us fliers."

"Why is that?"

"It was his job to weed out those of us unfit to fly, and being on flight status adds a healthy chunk to your paycheck. We think they work on a quota system kicking out X number of fliers a week."

"The tree is marvelous!" she gasped as she viewed the huge Christmas tree gracing the stately front windows. "Is he home?"

"Not sure, but I think his brother John is here, I saw John's car in the driveway." He rang the doorbell and waited. Soon the door opened a crack and two tiny blond girls peered up at Josh and Victoria. They didn't look any bigger than a pair of three-year-olds. Josh crouched down and said, "Hi ma'am, is Doctor Paul here?"

The twins looked at each other and muttered to each other a bit in an unintelligible babble then looked at Josh and said "No!" then they slammed the door closed.

"House elves?" asked Victoria, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Josh shrugged and pressed the doorbell again. Again, the door opened, and the two darling little girls looked up at him. "Hi ladies," said Josh as he crouched again, "is Pastor John here?"

Again, they looked at each other and muttered again in their own personal form of speaking then turned back up to Josh, "Unka John?" they asked in unison, their faces brightening.

Josh nodded good naturedly. "Yeah, Uncle John."

Their faces turned to scowls, "NO!" and they slammed the door closed.

"You certainly have a way with children," laughed Veronica.

"I've been told that," he said trying not to laugh. The sound of a dog barking inside gave him an idea. He rang the bell one more time. When the door opened this time, the girls looked angry. "Hi girls," said Josh without crouching this time, "is my old buddy Wonka here? I've come to see him."

Suddenly they brightened, "Wonka? Sure! HERE WONKA! Come here boy!" and a bouncing chocolate lab decorated with adhesive Christmas ribbons bounded up to the door, obviously happy to see an old friend who might rescue him from the adoration of these two girls.

As Josh greeted his old furry friend a French-Canadian voice from deep in the house called "Sandy! Madeline! I told you to stop playing with that doorbell!" the owner of that voice soon appeared in Josh's line of sight. "Is that you Josh? Entrez s'il vous plait, come in before you freeze to death."

Josh stood and led Veronica into the house and she was immediately shocked by the grand staircase leading upstairs where she could see the walkways leading to the different bedrooms. To her right was the huge Christmas tree in a very formal parlor, to her left was a living room torn from the pages of history. The furniture was 1950's style, there was even a floor cabinet TV that the twins were probably watching, someone had clearly removed the insides and replaced the tube with a flat screen TV. To top off the early style living room there was an aluminum Christmas tree in the corner that rotated slowly, it was illuminated by a floodlight that changed colors via a color wheel. This was obviously a memorial to something or someone.

A tall, beautiful, and very pregnant black woman with that endearing French accent stepped out of the parlor and gave Josh a huge hug. He said to the woman, "Macy, I'd like to introduce..." He was interrupted by Macy's sudden gasp.

"Veronica van Köster?"

Veronica looked at her uncertain for a moment then said "Marie-Claude? Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais? They were suddenly hugging and gushing "Oh my God, I haven't seen you since the Black Velvet shoot! How long ago was that?"

"Ohhh mon amie, too, too long ago, and it's just Macy now, Macy Jerecki."

Veronica nodded, "it's just Ronnie now, what are you up to? Besides making a baby?" She gently placed her hand on Macy's belly feeling the new life within.

Josh was suddenly on the outside of the whole conversation. He looked down on the twins who were just as confused as he was. "I guess they were buddies at work," said Josh.

"Uh huh," said one of the little girls

"My mommy has a work friend too, but we got stuck in the snow," chimed the other twin.

"Yeah, she and poppa Paul got all kissy," said the first twin.

"Kissy, kissy, kissy." The twins began puckering their lips as they said "kissy."

Josh chuckled, the twins were talking about events that happened a year ago that changed their young lives forever. Veronica had heard the chatter behind her and said, "Work buddies? we only shot together once, but we were active at the same time, and we knew each other's work."

"Come on you two," Josh said to the twins, "Show me poppa Paul's library," and led Veronica through the family room which looked to Veronica like an homage to 1950's middle class America. "Paul says that this is exactly what the living room of his childhood looked like in the 80's." Then they entered a large open room, the walls were lined with bookshelves that appeared to half full. The center of the room was a beautiful wooden floor and the far end of the room was a large fireplace. There were a few comfortable chairs with reading lights at the edges of the room but with the exception of a Barbie Dream Castle and accessories, the floor was empty.

In her beautiful French accent Macy explained, "This is a, how you say, suspended floor. Mister August said that it is not connected to the house, it is mounted on huge springs."

"A sprung dance floor!" Veronica gasped. Josh just shrugged, he heard Paul mention it in the past, but he never explained why it was sprung or what the significance of the springs was. "In the late eighteen hundreds these were all the rage. They would have these big dance parties and..." she searched for a way to explain it. "Dances where the thing, people would go to dances weekly, like a bowling league or something like that. The sprung dance floor gives you a softer feel, it prevents fatigue and shin splints. Early dance floors were bouncy, so it made some dances quite entertaining."

"Like a line dance?" asked Josh as he set a blue tooth speaker on the mantle over the fireplace

"That would be interesting. Ok, shoes off." Josh didn't ask why, but he still took off his ancient but comfortable western boots now on their third sole. Veronica didn't tell him why she wanted his shoes off, her primary concern was that she didn't know his level of skill and she didn't want her feet crushed under those boots.

"Do you mind if we start with a country waltz? I'm most comfortable with that."

"Sure," she smiled, still not knowing what to expect. Soon that familiar three-quarter time rhythm accompanied by a steel guitar announced their first dance, and so did the lyrics. He took Veronica in his arms with confidence, and they danced to that sweet Ann Murray hit "Could I have This Dance." She was happy to discover that Josh was actually very good at this, "So perfect," she purred as he led them in their very first dance together. She didn't listen to the words of the song, she was paying attention to the tempo and his foot movements because she was in "instructor mode" and Veronica was happy to find that Josh was doing quite well.

The twins stood guard over their Barbie empire in the middle of the floor as they watched their "Unka Josh" and this unknown woman dance around them. Soon their arm crossed and the pouting girls began to call "Hey! That's mommy's dance!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

Dr. Adrianna Roberts and Dr. Paul Jarecki returned to their home after a day of Christmas shopping for the twins, their arms overflowing with bags and boxes for Christmas where Andi and Paul could properly spoil their girls. Paul is a tall, gangly man with a large nose, deep set eyes, sandy hair and a goatee. Andi is short, barely four foot eleven, dark blond hair, and like her sister-in-law Macy, very pregnant. "That's Josh's jeep outside," said Paul, "You go see what they're up to while I stash the goodies."

Andi held the back door open for her husband whose arms were loaded with purchases then followed him in, her pregnant belly leading the way. The sound of Frank Sinatra singing The Way You Look Tonight echoed through a house that normally radiates nothing but Christmas music from Halloween to New Year's Day. They found the kitchen empty, so Paul hurried up the back steps, secured their purchases in a cabinet safe from tiny hands, then came back downstairs on the front staircase because the music seemed to be coming from the library.

He found Andi and Macy in the library, but he also found Josh and a beautiful blond woman dancing in their socks to the Sinatra tune while the twins danced in the middle of the wide-open floor trying to mimic their moves. The library is a large room in the house that has been numerous things over the century and a half that the house has been standing, but the discovery of the sprung floor returned the library to its original function as a dance floor. What Paul, Andi, and Macy was watching was clearly a dance lesson because the blond was giving Josh hints and pointers as they danced. Finally, as the song ended Josh and the blond embraced and kissed then Josh declared, "Break time!"

"You did awesome honey!" exclaimed the blond. "See? I told you, if you can two-step, you can foxtrot." She bent and hugged the twins, "You did great too!"

"They dance your dance mommy!" cried one of the girls when she noticed her mom standing at the edge of the dance floor.

"My dance?"

"Uh huh!" cried the other as they sprinted to their mommy, "your dance with poppa!"

Macy smiled, "They started out waltzing and these two got all excited and said "that's mommy's dance!"

"They identified that?" Andi was shocked. When she and Paul got married a year ago, she had never really danced, but she fell in love with a waltz so they practiced dancing the waltz over and over. Mostly country waltzes but they danced to the Christmas Waltz at their wedding reception on Christmas Eve. As she lifted Sandy, the other twin Madeline danced around her counting "One two three One two three One two three..."

"I guess they do remember," chuckled Paul. "You must be Josh's date from Friday. How are you doing Ronnie?"

"Doctor Jarecki? You're Paul?" gasped Veronica. She never made the connection between the Doctor that she had fished with and Josh's buddy Paul.

As they shook hands Andi stepped up and said "Hi, I'm Andi Jarecki, did you find the gift I left for you under the pillow?"

Veronica hugged Andi and said, "Oh yes! thank you so much, and I put it..." Veronica paused and rolled her eyes skyward to think for a moment, "he put it to good use. I'm Veronica van Köster by the way."

Andi invited Josh and Veronica to join them for coffee. They settled down in the breakfast nook of Paul and Andi's kitchen, a kitchen which is the size of a large America living room, and they sorted out introductions. "Paul, Andi," started Josh, "Veronica is the executive assistant to my boss's boss and now I find out, she was a Black Velvet girl with Reverend Macy. She lives right across the park from you, it's a straight line from your front door to the park gazebo to her house."

"Oh, Ok," said Andi, "Was that you helping her shovel out the driveway last Friday?"

"Yes he did!" smiled Veronica as she put an arm around her lover and kissed his cheek

He then put an arm around Veronica and said, "Veronica, this is Paul and Andi's daughters Madeline and Sandy, and their soon to be son Joshua."

"DANNY!" shrieked the twins. Sandy looked at Josh with a fierce glare and shook her tiny finger at him, "How many times I have to tell you his name is DANNY!"

Andi held Sandy back while Madeline climbed on Paul's lap and demanded that he spank Josh. Andi shook her head and said to Josh and said in an exhausted voice, "You just love stirring the pot, don't you." By this time Veronica was laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath, her melodious laugh filled the room. Andi turned to Veronica and said, "Dear, if you're dating this guy, this is what you're going to have to put up with. If you ever need support, we're just a block or two away."

"Josh calls you his little Cupid," said Veronica which brought a laugh from Macy.

"Now I need to know how you know my husband," Andi almost growled.

"A couple of years ago. I had just bought the house in town here and was fishing down in Zoar valley, and he showed me his favorite fishing spot," she said cheerfully.

Before Paul could respond, Josh hugged Veronica from behind and said, "no, he showed you MY favorite fishing spot, he's never revealed his favorite spot to anybody." To emphasize that, Paul smiled and shook his head no.

"Not even me," said Andi glaring at Paul. "At least you could have sold her a car."

"I did!" grinned Paul, "A Lincoln Navigator."

"Then all is forgiven," said Andi as she kissed her husband who along with being a doctor is the CEO of a chain of ten car dealerships throughout New York State. A position he inherited from his father.

"What beautiful girls," sighed Veronica, "How long have you been married?"

"One year come Christmas Eve," smiled Andi as the twins slipped off of her lap and went to bother their "Unka Josh."

"It's quite a story," said Macy who was sitting in the bay window seat looking for signs of her tardy husband. He was bringing dinner.

"Oh?" smiled Veronica.

Paul took a deep breath, "Andi and her girls came out to Springville from Denver to vacation at a B&B and visit with a friend, but they got turned around in that blizzard back in early December last year. They ended up on Trevette road and went in the ditch by Hirsh's farm. I was up the road at my cabin when the county Sheriff's called to see if I could help. I took them in and we were stuck in the cabin till Sunday morning and... ah..."

Andi took Paul's had and placed it on her belly, their son was due within a week. "We fell in love and made it permanent."

While Andi and Paul kissed, Sandy who was sitting on Veronica's knee continued the story, "We got a dog and cut a Christmas tree and fed chickens!"

Her sister on Josh's knee added, "we rode a tractor with sleigh bells and wheels This Big!" she said with her hands spread as wide as possible.

"Sleigh bells?" Veronica asked.

"Tire chains," said Paul. "These two think tire chains sound like sleigh bells."

"That's quite a story," said Josh turning to Veronica, "but it doesn't sound believable."

"You booger!" she said swatting him. She leaned toward Andi, "Your story is sweet and romantic, but it seems to be going around," she added with a sidelong glance to Josh who pretended to be embarrassed.

"Ok, ok," admitted Josh, "We've been kind of eying each other for the past year, and we got caught in last week's blizzard and spent four days together stuck in the building at work, and we've been together since."

"Eying you?" Veronica asked innocently. Then in a lusty growl she said "Buddy, I've been stalking you!" Josh actually looked shocked at her statement, so she added, "Yes, you dummy. Do you think I let Terri sit in my office yammering for hours because she's entertaining? I was hoping to hear about you!"

Josh fell silent and as Andi, Macy, and Veronica chattered about their experiences in the western New York weather. Josh pondered what she said, she was stalking me? Her comment was completely unexpected, here she was a beauty queen, a fashion model, a university graduate with an MBA, a member of the business world upper echelon. And here he was, a knuckle dragging Fred Flintstone who was lucky enough to avoid falling out of the sky when his plane got hit, a community college associates degree in computer science, a low-level manager whose only business claim to fame is that his few subordinates haven't misunderstood his directions and caused a customer uprising. He needs to have a talk with Veronica before she makes a horrible mistake.

After chatting with Andi and Paul and securing the use of their library for practice, Josh and Veronica begged off Chinese take-out with the Jarecki family and headed out to Worzil's just a couple of blocks up the street. Just as they said their goodbyes and stepped down the porch as a new Ford Bronco pulled into the driveway. A slim Asian girl stepped out from the driver side, and a short, dark-haired man with several bags stepped out from the passenger side.

"Josh!" cried the Asian girl and she was about to hug Josh when she stopped and looked back and forth between Veronica and Josh. "Awww shit, you're off the market, aren't cha. Fuck... you sure are."

"What are you whining about?" asked Josh in a gruff but humorous tone as he hugged her anyway, "are you thinking about trading up?"

The man stepped up next to her, looked between Josh and Veronica and said "Yeah, it looks like he is off the market, how ya doin' buddy?"

"Doing fine, this is Veronica van Köster. Veronica, this is John, Paul's brother and Macy's husband, and the innocent little thing here is Ye-jin Carlson, she's the twin's governess."

Veronica shook hands with John and Ye-jin, to each she said "Call me Ronnie, I work with Josh."

"Ye has to watch her mouth around the twins so she vents outside," explained Josh.

John just chuckled and said, "We'd love to talk, but we don't want dinner to get cold," as he held up a large sack from a local Chinese take-out.

"Gotta go," said Ye-jin, then she quickly hugged Veronica. "We have to talk. I'm here all day, almost every day," she said nodding her head toward Josh.

"Ok!" laughed Veronica as they walked up the driveway. "I live right over there," she said as she pointed to her house.

"No really!" called Ye-jin from the doorway. "I'm serious, call me!" then the twins yanked her in the house.

"Let's walk, it's only a couple of blocks," said Josh. The couple walked hand in hand in the winter early evening darkness, the snow gently falling and only seen in the shine of the streetlights. It seemed like every house in the neighborhood was lit up with Christmas lights, all except Veronica's house which looked like a dark corner in the festival of lights.

"What's the story between you and Ye-jin?" Veronica finally asked. She couldn't believe it but she was jealous of that Asian twenty something.

"She's been here about nine months, she's dating the kid from the feed store, and makes me glad that she's never met Terri." Seeing Veronica's questioning look he continued. "I don't need Terri picking up even worse language." When Veronica stopped laughing he continued, "She's a Culinary Institute trained chef and made a living cooking on large yachts until she cooked for Paul and Andi and they hired her away from the tropics. I met her a couple of years ago when her folks were up here, they summer at Paul's cabin when the tourist season slows down."

Veronica knew about yacht owners and their chefs, Paul didn't make any friends stealing a good chef. "I hope it wasn't some friend that Paul hired her away from."

"Actually she was on his yacht, he just upped her pay scale and moved her to the snow belt."

"Paul and Andi have a yacht?"

"A yacht, a couple of sailboats, a house in Jupiter Florida, a house in Melbourne Florida, and a house here." He winked at Veronica and said, "The only thing better than having a boat..." and they completed the adage in unison, "...is having a friend with a boat!"

The snow on the ground twinkled as they walked reflecting the street lights and the Christmas lights. Every streetlamp was decorated with a pine garland wrapped around the pole and a wreath around the faux gas lamp at the top. The houses were outlined with colored lights and lawns were covered with displays. "I've lived here for a few years, and I've never walked at night... I don't think I've really noticed the Christmas lights..." then she added sadly, "I'm usually working at home or I'm at the office or the gym and by the time I get home the Christmas lights are mostly off."

"I thought you'd be dining at the finest spots in the area with Anthony and Marjorie and investors," said Josh. "You know, selling the concept of Andelon.com to CEOs and their ilk... I don't mean to imply you were hired for your looks..."

"Why do you think I was hired?" she asked.

"To be honest? I think Anthony hired you as kind of a trojan horse. You meet investors with Anthony and the VPs and your looks distract them and all the while you're looking for flaws in their plans, landmines, traps, scams, cons, that kind of thing."

"That's a part of it," she smiled. "With my background in modeling and the pageants I'm sure many think I was hired for my looks, but you know Anthony... he believes he has a God given talent for hiring the right person for the job. I'm good at what I do, and I do what ever it takes Anthony's and Marjorie's businesses a success. I have done what you've described. When those dinners don't happen my dates have all been with spread sheets." She slipped a little on the icy sidewalk and clung to Josh's arm tighter and when they got past the ice she still clung tight. "This place we're going, what's it like?"

"Worzils? It's an old school neighborhood pub that you used to find in every neighborhood in western New York. Simple food, cold beer, and working-class folks unwinding after a long hard day."

"Mmmm," she purred, "It sounds perfect, so it's not a high-class establishment like the Ellicott Manor?" The Ellicott Manor is the place that Josh took her on their tobogganing date and serenaded her with a barbershop quartet.

"I don't know how to tell you this, but they're the same kind of place, in fact Worzil's may be a step up," he said as they approached a small bar that was built in what was once a residential house. He held the door open for her as she entered. "Here at Worzil's all three of the neon beer signs are working."

It was warm and humid inside Worzil's, most of the lighting was provided by illuminated beer signs. On the only clock visible every number is a 5. The clock advertised a brewery long out of business and the ad on the clock said, "Welcome to Somewhere." The squared U-shaped bar that dominated the room was populated by a few bar flies along the back side so they could see people as they entered, there were small booths lining the walls, a shuffleboard bowling machine was being played by a couple of young guys, and the sound of an air hockey game could be heard coming from the back room. The smell of beer, pizza, and Buffalo style chicken wings filled the air. A skinny Asian man in his fifties wearing comically thick glasses manned the bar, he saw Josh walk in with Veronica on his arm and actually looked surprised. "Josh!" he called. "Nice! Usually, the arresting officer isn't this pretty," He held his hand out to Veronica. "I'm Ayato Tanaka."

"Ronnie," she said before Josh could introduce her, "and he caught me."

"Hold on to this one Josh," grinned Ayato, "this one's a big step up from that lumberjack you used to date."

"She wasn't a lumberjack," said Josh withering under Veronica's questioning look, "she was the belt operator at the sawmill."

Just then a tough looking woman in her mid-fifties with graying brunette hair and an intimidating look came up and said "Ooo, who's the prom queen Josh?"

"Julissa Tanaka, this is Veronica van Köster..." Julissa was Caucasian so Ronnie guessed that they were husband and wife.

Before he could complete the introduction the woman said "van Köster? Royalty? Well, la-tee-da! We should break out the clean silverware! Honey? Do we have any of that left?"

"I think I can find some," grinned Ayato as he drew a beer.

"Listen sweetie," Julissa said in a stage whisper to Veronica, "I hope you brought some money with you, because this dumbass is notoriously cheap." She jerked a thumb in Josh's direction.

"You're killing me here Julissa," muttered Josh. "I knew we should have gone to McDonalds."

"What and die of their empty calories?" demanded Julissa. "We got plenty of empty calories right here. What'll ya have to drink sweetie?"

Veronica smiled, "I'll have what he's having."

"It's your funeral toots, staying for dinner Josh?"

"Yeah Jules, we'll have the beef on weck."

"That sounds interesting," said Veronica, I've never tried that."

"Seriously?" asked Julissa as she turned on a heel. "Find a seat, I'll try to find you."

All of the booths were empty so Josh and Veronica sat in a booth by the front window where they could watch the light snow fall and observe the Christmas lights in the village. Josh looked like he was terrified of the next thing that Veronica would say. As he sat silently berating himself for bringing this beauty queen to a local 'gin mill' Julissa walked up to the table and placed two pints of light amber nectar in front of the couple. "Damnit" he said to himself, "I could have ordered her some wine, a Vodka Collins, or something from a craft brewery. I'm such a dolt."

"What's this?" Veronica took a cautious sip and her eyes opened wide in delight. "Jenny!" and she actually began to quaff the lager. When she set her pint down a good third of it was gone. "Oh God how I miss this stuff." Josh was shocked, Genesee, known as Jenny, is a local beer that is an acquired taste. Veronica leaned forward and in a conspiratorial tone of voice said, "If I drank as much of this as I would like, I'd end up looking like that guy," and she pointed to one of the bar flies at the end of the bar. The fellow had a prominent beer gut.

"Ol' Stash? I didn't think you chewed on cigars."

"Not chew, but I don't mind a nice maduro on occasion."

Josh was stunned. "You smoke cigars and drink cheap beer?"

"Not cheap beer, but I really like Genesee; it just happens to be highly affordable." She smiled as a fond memory surfaced. "Whenever I had a pageant or a photoshoot nearby my dad would show up with a six pack and as soon as the job or the pageant was over, we'd go to a park or some other place and drink those beers... what... You look surprised. I had been starving myself for weeks beforehand." She took another sip of her beer, "there's no better way to break a fast where I'm from."

"I guess... I am... I didn't think..." he sputtered and fumbled for words.

"I like it here," she said happily looking around at the memorabilia hanging on the walls. All kinds of odds and ends were hung on the wall, photographs of patrons by the dozens, a well-worn football, a bent steering wheel, hockey sticks, baseball bats, a Buffalo Bills jersey... "Dad used to bring me to places like this for dinner when I was a little girl, me and..." She waved her hands as if to chase off a bad memory then smiled sweetly and took another sip of her beer.

"You?... Your dad?"

"Well yeah, what did you think?"

Josh gulped. "I thought you were... your dad was... a mechanical engineer, suit and tie guy, right?"

Veronica laughed that musical laugh that even the angels envy. "No silly, he was a laborer. He built locomotives; he didn't design them." Suddenly she stopped laughing, now she understood why Josh was withdrawn, he had some fantasy that she was an upper crust member of the elite. She's going to have to let the air out of his balloon. She took his hand in hers across the table. "Look, honey. Relax, I'm just Ronnie."

"So, you're not Veronica?" when he's confused Josh doesn't catch on too quickly.

Veronica gently held his big strong hands, "That's what's on my birth certificate, and it will probably be on my tomb stone, but right here, right now, just for you, I'm Nica. To everyone else I'm Ronnie, the lady on Third Avenue with no Christmas lights on her house. Am I making sense?"

"You want help putting up the Christmas lights?" For some reason Josh's brain wasn't working, here's a beauty queen pretending to be satisfied with this working class crap he's been dishing out to her for the past week?

"Now you're just playing dumb," Veronica's smile was starting to sadden.

"He's a three-time world champion at that game honey," said Julissa as she set the food out, Beef on Weck, German potato salad and cole slaw along with a small pot of nuclear horse radish. Forget chicken wings, those are for the tourists, in Buffalo the real dish is Beef on Weck. It's thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a kimmelweck, a hard roll that's crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, it's garnished on top with kosher salt and caraway seeds. Beef on weck comes two ways, the top dipped in au jus, or dry, and it is always served with prepared horse radish.

"Thank you doll face," said Josh to Julissa.

"Save it loser, I'm taken," said Julissa as she drank some of Josh's beer. "Ayato wants to talk to you right away, he says it's about your tab."

"I don't have a tab," growled Josh as he slid out of the booth, "I'll be right back," and he headed to the bar. When he got to the bar Ayato was busy washing beer glasses. "What's this about a tab?" he asked.

"You don't have a tab," said Ayato without looking up.

"Then why am I here?"

"You're here for the beer, and the food. But like most people, you're here for the atmosphere," with a shit-eating grin he made a sweeping gesture to encompass the entire bar.

Kevin sat on a barstool. "Seriously buddy, Julissa told me that you wanted to talk to me about my tab."

"She lied," said Ayato as he shook the water off of his hands and dried them with a towel. "She wanted to talk to Ronnie and maybe save your dumb ass before you fucked up another relationship." He sat a shot of whiskey and a small beer chaser in front of Josh. "Loosen up buddy, that woman is crazy about you." He tapped his incredibly thick glasses, "even I can see that."

Over at the table Julissa sat down across from Veronica and looked her in the eye. "What's the matter princess?"

"I think I'm losing him..." her smile disappeared, and she suddenly looked shattered.

"Maybe that's not a bad thing." Julissa looked sympathetic but stern. "Look, I love Josh to death, but he's seriously fucked up, something happened in the military, and he won't talk about it to anyone..."

"His plane was hit, he told me," said Veronica desperately trying to hold it together. "They landed hard, and he got injured, he was a flier, see?" She held up her phone with a picture of Josh's retirement display of his wings, badges and ribbon rack. "His call sign is Bounce Two Seven because he bounced around when they crashed."

Julissa immediately saw that purple ribbon at the top, the purple heart, with an oak leaf device which indicates that he received two purple hearts. She took Veronica's phone from her and looked carefully at the ribbons, there were several that caught her eye and she muttered "Damn!" She, like Ayato, is a veteran and knows that these ribbons and badges mean a lot of hard work. She sent the picture to her own phone and handed the phone back to Ronnie.

"Let me guess, he treats you like royalty and you're afraid that he's going to get mad when he finds out you're a real live person," said Julissa, "am I right?"

"Yeah," said Veronica, looking at the picture on her phone sadly. "He knows I used to be Miss Ohio, an Ohio State cheerleader, and that I was a model and dated rich guys. Now I'm his boss's executive assistant, but..." she suddenly realized what Josh was worried about and a look defeat covered her face. "That's not me. That's what I do to put food on the table."

Julissa looked a little angry, how do people fuck themselves up so bad? "Did he tell you what these ribbons mean?" When Veronica shook her head, Julissa continued. "If he did, you'd probably think he was some kind of Air Force Superman, swooping in to save the day. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and all that bullshit. But he would just say that he did what he needed to do, and somebody handed him a medal when the dust settled and the blood dried. He needs to know that you're not going to shatter if you fall, and you need to know that he's already been shattered, he's not Superman but he wants to be one for you. He wants to be the person you want to lean on, but he needs someone to lean on too and he's too stupid to admit it."

"Are you sure?" asked Veronica grasping for anything to give her hope.

"He told you about his demon, he hasn't told anyone else. Princess, that's huge." She reached across the table and squeezed Veronica's hand then finished Josh's beer and stood. "Be honest with him, you need to tell him about your demon."

Veronica was shocked, "how do you know..."

"Princess, we all have demons, he's not going to get mad, ok? And if you need to vent at someone, I'm here for you. My number is on your phone."

Just then Josh returned from the bar and sat down. He was about to make a remark when he saw his empty glass. Julissa glared at him and said "Well, whatdoyawant? You were gone so long it evaporated." Then with an exasperated sigh she said "Relax, I'll get you a new one. Sit. Eat!"

Josh was almost embarrassed for bringing Veronica here, she probably hates Julissa's attitude, she's probably so used to proper waiters at fancy restaurants. His inner beratement evaporated when Veronica said, "I love that woman, she's so funny but how does she keep her job?"

"It's easy when you own the place," said Josh as he settled in.

Veronica acted like there was never a pause in their conversation and bit into her sandwich. "This is so good!" she gasped. "What is it?"

"It's a beef on weck, other than Friday fish fry, this is the food of Buffalo. You've lived here how long and you've never had beef on weck?"

"Mmmm it's incredible," she said around a mouthful. "So simple yet so delicious! It's the second-best thing I ever put in my mouth," she said after swallowing.

"And the first is...?" he grinned.

"Your dick." She smiled and winked then tried another bite with a little horse radish. Her eyes rolled in pleasure. Did her simple attempt to cheer him up work? She can't tell and she's starting to freak out about this.

"I can't believe you have never had this before," Josh's hands were trembling, his nerves were frayed, it was that same feeling he got when his gunship rolled to the left to acquire the target and went into a pylon turn once locked on. In a moment the guns would fire, and they would no longer be hidden in the dark. Their muzzle flash would tell every jerk with a gun or Stinger missile where they were.

"I've never seen it on a menu before! I don't go out on my own and nobody's ever taken me to a restaurant that serves this..." she said as she tried the potato salad. Again, her eyes rolled with joy. "This is so good!"

Josh carefully ladled the horse radish on to his beef with a tiny spoon. It's often said that the horse radish they serve at Worzil's is so hot it can be used to light a cigarette. Josh was afraid that if he dropped some on the table it would burn a hole through the tabletop. "I find it hard to believe that no one has taken you to a tavern," said Josh as the horseradish cleared his sinuses and brought tears to his eyes.

"It's true," said Veronica as she wiped her hands with a napkin. "Anyone who takes me out figures I'm high maintenance royalty and we end up at some hoity-toity café with a maitre'd that makes six figures for maintaining a three-month long waiting list. They serve a plate sprinkled with salad toppings, a slice of tuna, and a smear of mayo mixed with mustard for a hundred dollars, but that's not me."

"It's not?" said Josh hopefully. Unconsciously their hands sought each other's out, and she found that he was trembling.

"I don't know who or what you expect but I'm just Ronnie from Erie. I come from a filthy little blue-collar neighborhood where the houses were so close together you could hardly get your car between them. I barely graduated high school, and the only thing I had going for me was a pretty face and a fancy sounding name; everything else I had to work for. My dad is Joe lunch pail and worked as a laborer at the GE locomotive plant, my mother was a high school lunch lady that ran off with the milkman. That other woman, Veronica, she's who I am at work. What can I say? Here I feel at home, at work I like playing dress up."

"So, that air of super executive you have at work is just a game?"

"No, I only play games with my wardrobe," she scolded. "I'm very good at what I do, it's where I thrive, and like a military officer, my position requires respect..." she knew he would understand the part about the officer and she saw a look of relief on his face, "you knew that didn't you."

In an instant all of Josh's concerns shattered and fluttered away, all of his preconceptions about Veronica were exactly right, she was a real person, a solid executive with a dress-up façade. Here she was like the girls from back home with cut off shorts and a long neck beer, except where they could nail a six point buck at three hundred yards, Veronica's targets wore suit coats and ties. He had figured that out at first but somehow let the façade fool him. "Nica," he whispered, "I'm sorry if I acted like a jerk, I sometimes let my insecurities rule my life and blind me."

"What do you mean Effy?" she asked, her face streaked with concern.

"I'm just a guy with a GI Bill associates degree, I've got more bits that are broken than are healthy. I haven't been on a date in two years..."

"It's been three years," grinned Ayato without looking up from behind the bar.

"Thanks, asshole," replied Josh without looking over his shoulder at Ayato, "like I need your help to remind me how pathetic I am." He focused on Veronica again and said, "Excuse me I forget how good his ears are." He took a bite of his cole slaw then continued, "For a few years it was just me and Paul, we got hobby farms near each other, and we help each other out... do some fishing... watch Gus fix up Paul's house. Then Paul found Andi, a month later you spoke to me at the party and I kinda figured my life was changing. Then this past week... a week like this this doesn't happen to guys like me, so I get suspicious and..."

"What doesn't happen Effy?" she asked. She was confused but she had a feeling they were getting close to the reason for his weird mood. This morning they were lovers having fun hiding their love from their co-workers but now... is he breaking up with her?

Josh closed his eyes for a moment then realized he was terrified to open them back up, scared shitless of what he would see. That night, that damn night when they heard the words, "Brace! Brace! Brace!" on the intercom telling them to brace for impact, everything suddenly got real, and then nothing was ever real again. Well, what's the worst that could happen, he could open his eyes and realize that this was all a dream and he'd see his crew on the 105 mangled and bloody, one crewmate missing, or he could see the ground rushing up at him at 300 miles per hour, or worse, much worse, he could see Veronica get up and leave. He remembered what Pastor Orvis once told him, "When you don't know what to say, try saying the truth, that way you don't have to remember which lie you used." He decided to try the truth. With a twisted pain in his stomach and his hands shaking like two leaves in the wind he said, "You."

He heard her gasp and with that nauseous feeling twisting his guts to hell and back he continued. "You don't happen. You're so beautiful and smart, everything about you is a dream come true... I could listen to your laugh all day long, your smile makes my life so much better, and waking up next to you makes mornings livable. But I'm just an ol' redneck from down on the Saint Mary's river, people like you don't ever happen to people like me." He opened his eyes praying that he saw the ground rushing up to kill him, anything but Veronica leaving.

She wasn't leaving, in fact she was smiling. "What do you want Effy? Besides another beer," Veronica demanded softly. "Tell me."

"I can't... I don't... no, it's too soon. Maybe I can tell you later, but not now."

"Come on," she coaxed softly. "I won't make fun of you." She lifted his hand and sucked gently on his middle finger. "Tell me what you want," she whispered as she prayed and hoped she was right. She had an idea she knew...

The sensation of her mouth, her tongue... he knew exactly what she could do to his dick with that mouth and tongue, and he was defenseless against this assault. He closed his eyes then took a deep breath and held it. Like his gun missions, they were only scary if you survive. If you get blown out of the sky... well... except for the long fall, the scary part is over. You don't have to wake up gasping in terror for the rest of your life.

He opened his eyes and immediately her eyes locked to his, "Nica, I love you. I can't dream of living without you. I want us to be a family. A real family... forever. I know it's only been a week..."

It wasn't what Veronica expected, it was so much better! She interrupted without considering his words any further, she now knew exactly what she wanted also. "I want that too... I love you." And suddenly the realization of what they both committed to washed over both of them. Their emotions took control and before they realized it they were leaning across the table kissing, their hearts soaring in unison.

"What's up?" Julissa asked her husband as they watched from behind the bar.

Ayato grinned his lopsided grin. Without his glasses he is as blind as a bat, but like a bat his hearing is incredible. It's said that Ayato Tanaka could hear a coin drop from across the street and know exactly what the denomination was, and he wasn't going to dispel that rumor. "I think that dumbass just proposed." He reached under the bar for a stack of small plastic disposable shot glasses. "If that's what he did, it was the dumbest proposal I've ever heard."

"Dumber than yours?" Julissa asked as she snapped Ayato's ass with a bar towel.

"Oh, worse. MUCH worse"

Their kiss went on for a sweet eternity, and when Josh and Veronica broke their kiss Julissa was standing at their booth holding a tray. She placed two more beers on the table then set two tiny plastic shot glasses filled with clear liquid on the table also. "What's this?" Veronica asked. Then she realized that the back room emptied and joined the bar flies at the bar, there had to be a dozen or more people lined up at the bar staring at her and Josh, all of them holding a small plastic shot glass at the ready.

"It's peppermint schnapps. Join us for a shot," said Julissa as she lifted her own plastic shot glass from the tray.

"Whenever there is something to celebrate at Worzils, Ayato and Julissa buy us all a shot," Josh explained to Veronica as she uncertainly lifted her little cup. She sniffed the cup and found it smelled like a stick of peppermint chewing gum. "What is it this time?" Josh called across the room to Ayato.

Ayato grinned from behind the bar and lifted his own shot glass. "You finally pulled your head out of your ass. Nostrovia!"

"Nostrovia!" shouted the entire bar as they tossed back their shots.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Josh and Veronica walked back to her house in a cloud of joy. Filled up on Genesse beer and roast beef on home made kummelweck buns, buzzing on cheap peppermint schnapps and reinvigorated love they walked the blocks back to Veronica's house enjoying the gentle snow fall and the holiday decorated homes of Springville. They stopped in front of Paul and Andi's huge home and enjoyed the Christmas decorations. In the middle of a discussion of how much they guessed that Paul spent on that huge Christmas tree, Veronica whirled on Josh and said, "That was one of the worst proposals I've ever heard in my life!"

Josh gave his South Georgia accent free reign on his answer, "Why hell ma'am, that weren't no proposal, even ah ain't that fucked up, ah wuz jest seein' if you cotton to the idea."

"A pre-proposal proposal?" she asked. Her voice dripped with incredulity.

"Yes ma'am. Ah larned to never ask a question ya don't know the answer to."

"You!" laughing she threw herself at Josh and tackled him into a snowbank and attempted to rub snow on his face but he grasped her wrists and turned her snow covered mittens toward her own face.

"It's your turn to confess," he taunted. "You got me to admit one of my demons, what is yours?"

"What, the one about anal sex?"

He liked where she was going with that, but her grin told him that she was trying to divert his attention from the real demon. He twisted her arms until those mittens grew closer to her own face. "No ma'am. that day of the blizzard, I found you in your truck with your keyfob and your badge on your desk." To Veronica, calling her fully loaded Lincoln Navigator a "truck" was equivalent to calling a luxury equipped limousine a jalopy, and he knows that, but he did it this time to get a response from her. "You could have died out there, if I weren't out there you would be dead."

All the fight drained out of Veronica, and she leaned back, still sitting on Josh. "I know, and don't think I'm not thankful, but I wasn't very thankful at the time." She leaned to the side and ended up next to Josh in the snow looking up at the flakes that were gently drifting down on them. "Just before I went outside to drive home, I got a text from my older sister." Then she went silent for a long time.

"Maurene?" Josh asked.

"Yes," she answered, but then went silent again.

"Good Irish name for a Dutch girl," Josh remarked.

"Mother was Irish," Veronica said and then went silent again.

Josh noticed that she said "Mother" and not "my mother," and definitely not "mom." Veronica never speaks about her mother and only rarely about her sister. Eventually he squeezed her hand to remind her that he was still here. Finally she spoke, "Maurene texted me, she's having another baby. A boy this time." She took a deep breath. "A boy this time... Jameson Radcliffe junior. I don't know, I just freaked out. All thinking just shut down."

Ow! That had to hurt. A week before her big wedding, Veronica's older sister Maurene ran off with her fiancé Jameson to Hawaii leaving Veronica to deal with all the guests and the expenses of a huge wedding that went up in smoke just a week before the I-do's were scheduled. Then Josh went and said the one thing that Veronica didn't expect anyone to say. "A little boy, how awesome!"

She rolled over and glared at Josh, if this conversation were said in bed it couldn't have been any colder in that room than it was here in the snowbank. "Awesome? You think it's awesome?" Her tone of voice dropped the temperature another ten degrees. "You're taking her side in this?"

"No, I'm taking his side, little Jameson. Babies are cool, and it's not his fault that his mom is a backstabbing bitch and his dad is a lying bastard..."

"That's my sister you're talking about," Veronica growled, then she saw his grin, he was trying to mend her relationship with Maurene by making himself the bad guy in this argument. "You really are a dick, you know that?"

"I think the best way of telling his parents "Fuck you" is to make sure that Jamie Junior is the most loved nephew of all time," said Josh as he got to his feet.

"You truly are a dick," she shook her head. The pain was still real, as was the horror of finding the bill for their flight to Hawaii on her credit card the day she found him gone. But the pain and embarrassment of going blank and stumbling out to her Navigator without a key to start it, without a key to get back in the building... She knew Effy was there, did she do it knowing he would rescue her?

~~~~~*~~~~~

The next few weeks were filled with preparations for the office party and Christmas. Josh and Ronnie returned to work as normal, they kept their love a secret and they teased Terri mercilessly as she continued to find a date for Josh. "I've got a cousin in Oshawa Ontario, she'll go with you," Terri shouted over the server Josh had on the work bench.

Josh shook his head. "Thank you, but I've got a date," he shouted then went back to setting parameters on the server. These machines are good, solid servers, but they're noisier than hell. And Terri wasn't helping.

"Really," said Terri as she double checked the programming on a forty-eight port switch she was getting ready to give to Jen to install in a customer's network. "Maureen is cute, she only weighs ninety-eight."

Josh converted kilograms to pounds in his head and came up with a number that exceeded his own weight. "Sorry Terry, but I have a date." Then he considered what would happen if he showed up with a woman named Maureen. He was sure that Veronica would kill him and do so while dinner was being served.

Terri began to pack up her laptop and the switch. "You only have a few weeks bossman. You don't want to spend Christmas alone. Again."

After work Josh went to his apartment and packed a couple more boxes. He and Veronica had begun to move Josh's stuff from his apartment in Orchard Park to Veronica's house in Springville, Josh and Paul had put Christmas lights on the house for her and set up a tree in her living room. Every evening they went over to Paul and Andi's house and practiced their dance, and Veronica's dancing coach Milton joined them on the weekends and his tips and encouragement made Josh feel like he was truly learning to dance with his lover at a level that properly complimented her ability.

One evening after dance practice they swung by Tim Horton's and picked up a couple of sandwiches and hot apple cider and drove around Springville in Veronica's Lincoln Navigator looking at the Christmas lights. It was something Veronica did with her dad and sister, she remembered those cold December nights riding with dad and Maurene in his ancient Chevy driving around Erie Pennsylvania looking at the lights, all three of them missing mommy, all refusing to mention being abandoned by her. Now years later as the Christmas music played on the stereo Josh and Veronica shared their memories and drew closer as a couple. Neither had ever felt so loved.

"Ah didn't have a bad life, we didn't have any money, dad worked at the papermill and sometimes on the shrimp boats, momma she took in laundry and sometimes delivered news papers for the Waycross Tribune in Saint Mary's and Kingsland," said Josh. "They were old when I was born, heck, my sister had graduated high school an already run off with a salesman from the paper mill. I have a nephew older than me. One day I come home from school and my sister was there and said that there was an accident and that was that," Josh shrugged sadly. "I moved in with them, finished school, and went to find a service to enlist in."

"Oh God! I'm so sorry!" gasped Veronica. She held his hand to her face

"Now you know why when someone as wonderful as you takes a liking to me, I get suspicious that there's some cosmic trick being played on the both of us," he said slowly.

Veronica stifled a rueful laugh, "I know exactly what you mean."

Along with everything else going on, Macy went into labor and was rushed to the hospital by John, they were joined the next day by Andi and Paul and soon the twins had a beautiful little brother who sadly was not named Josh. The next day they had a cousin, a little girl who was not named Josh either. Their brother was named Daniel after Andi's father, an Army captain who died in Iraq, and their cousin was named Katarina after John and Paul's mother.

After the birth of the babies the dance practice continued but had to change slightly due to reprimands from the twins who would scowl and hold up their finger to their lips and warn, "Shhh! Baby!" Josh connected blue tooth headphones to an MP3 player and they were able to practice in silence which kept the twins happy.

Not long after the birth of the babies, Paul's friend August "Gus" Didomissio and Andi's friend Lucy Kosis (pronounced "Coaches") stopped by Paul and Andi's house to see the baby. Gus is the contractor who has done so much work on both Paul's and Veronica's houses and has been dating Andi's friend Lucy Kosis for nearly a year. Andi was up for the first time since returning home with Danny and met her friends Gus and Lucy as they entered the kitchen door. It was a warm slushy night, the accumulation of snow from the storm a few weeks ago was starting to melt as Andi and Paul showed off their baby to their friends. Paul was over the moon, he and his first wife were adamant against having children, they were military officers and had places to go, but the day Paul met Andi's twins, Sandy and Madeline, Paul realized everything he knew was wrong. This little boy was now his everything and he could only marvel at the miracle of his birth.

"He's so beautiful!" gushed Lucy as she held the infant.

"Don't be getting any ideas," warned Gus. His teenage daughters were living with their mom in Cincinnati, and he missed them dearly, but that part of his life was over. However, in the back of his mind a thought took root that he wouldn't mind if a son or two popped into his life.

"Josh and Veronica should be here soon," said Andi, "I think you know the both of them Gus."

"I know Veronica," said Gus, "I redid her kitchen not long ago and I fished on Josh's pond with Paul..." He searched his memory and remembered a character who watched him rebuild this very kitchen, "I'm pretty sure I met Josh once or twice I believe."

"Well, they're a thing," grinned Andi, "wait 'till you see them." It was almost like she felt that she set them up. She was sure that the combination of the fuzzy handcuffs and practicing in her library cemented their relationship and she was there to foster their love.

"They're here mommy," said Sandy as she tugged on Andi's housecoat. Madeline who was in her Unka Gus' arms nodded in agreement.

"I didn't hear them come in, where are they?" asked Paul.

"Dancin'."

They followed Sandi through the kitchen and into the library and there was Josh and Veronica dancing beautifully in their socks, but the only sound they could hear was Veronica encouraging and teaching, "and two, three, four turn and out and back and again..." Josh noticed their audience and stopped. He pulled out his earphone and said, "Oh, hey folks, you can cut in if you want."

"What are you doing Joshua?" Andi said in her very best MomVoice.

"We didn't want to wake Danny," said Veronica as she took out her earpieces.

Josh shrugged. "The sound police insisted, right girls?"

Sandy and Madeline held their tiny fingers to their lips, "Shh! Baby!"

"No girls," sighed Andi. "Mister Josh and Miss Veronica play nice music and they're not loud. 'Shh Baby' is for you two and your squealing and yelling."

The twins looked embarrassed and shrugged their shoulders. "Sorrr-eee," they said.

Andi introduced Veronica and Josh to Lucy, "She's the reason why I'm here. The girls and I came out to Springville visit Lucy, the four of us were planning on Christmas in Toronto, but the girls and I bumped into Paul first."

"And Wonka!" added the twins as they "scritched" their constant companion, Paul's chocolate lab.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" Paul asked.

"Oh we couldn't..." started Veronica.

"No, you're staying," said Andi as she handed the baby to Veronica. "Danny wants you to stay."

"I guess we can't break the little guy's heart," said Josh as he watched Veronica take the tiny baby into her arms happily.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Christmas eve at Andalon.com was quiet, many of the employees were gone, the CEO Anthony Friedman let as many employees leave early as possible so they could spend more time with their families. In his USAF days, Josh usually covered shifts on "family" holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving for his married colleagues and this year at Andalon was no different. Most of his "kids" had left at noon, he even chased his manager Mark, and the head of field technicians, Eli leaving himself, Terri, and one CSR on the phone bank.

Veronica was seated on the couch in Anthony's office, the same couch that she and Josh made love on for three days and nights until they could get free and out to her house. Through his large window Ant saw an ancient, beat-up Chevy speed out of the parking lot. "There goes Terri," he smiled. "Before Josh gets here, how are you two doing?"

Veronica actually blushed. "Ok I guess," she said shyly.

"Please!" said Marjorie, "I've never seen you like this; those eyes can't hide a secret. How long have we known each other? I've never seen you so happy!"

Veronica smiled and looked into her glass of brandy. "He's going to propose."

Anthony and Marjorie stared at her in slack jawed amazement. "Really?" gushed Ant.

"How do you know?" Marjorie gasped.

"A couple of weeks ago I asked him what was on his mind, and he finally said, 'I want us to be a family.'"

Anxiously Marjorie prompted, "and you said?"

Veronica sipped her brandy and said, "I said, "me too." Later I said, if that was a proposal it was kind of lame."

"What did he say to that?"

Perfectly mimicking Josh's southern drawl, she said, "Aw hail honey, even ah'm not that fucked up, ah learned never ask a question ah don' know the answer to."

Anthony and Marjorie laughed long and loud and Marjorie finally said, "That sounds like Josh!"

"He was just finding out if I cotton to the idea," said Veronica fueling even more laughter. She looked back to that night in the magical snow fall outside of Andi and Paul's house when he reassured her "I'm going to ask for real, from the heart." The next night they were in the village of Williamsville at a quaint little jeweler on Main Street. Mr. Wetzel showed them several settings that would show off her diamond and they found one they fell in love with along with a pair of matching wedding rings and left her old ring behind.

After bedding down the servers and ensuring that his manager Mark has headed off, Josh responded to Veronica's text and joined her in Anthony's office. He sat down next to her, and Anthony handed him a snifter of brandy. "How is life treating you?" It wasn't anything to do with work, Anthony respects the chain of command and unless it's really important, he rarely, if ever, asks Josh about his work.

Josh sat down next to Veronica and put his arm around her as he sipped from the snifter. "It's become the happiest whirlwind I've ever seen."

Anthony and Marjorie sat in comfortable chairs across the coffee table from the happy couple. "You two look happy together, are you?" asked Marjorie.

"I'm insanely happy," said Josh, then he turned to face Veronica, "How about you?"

"Crazy happy," smiled Veronica.

"Our first date," said Josh and handed his phone to Anthony and Marjorie. Ant scrolled through the pictures, selfies of a smiling couple shopping at Sally Ann's, tobogganing down the hill at Chestnut Ridge Park, then suddenly a video, Josh singing to a melting Veronica at the Ellicott manor.

"A barbershop quartet serenade!" gasped Marjorie, she laughed at the corny-ness of the idea and dabbed tears from her eyes. Corny or not it was so romantic! The video ended with Josh and Veronica kissing and it panned to the restaurant applauding. "You sang that! You did that!"

"Yes ma'am, but ah sing baritone, it was the lead that bailed out, ah had to learn that part on the fly," Josh's southern accent really came through showing he was uncomfortable.

"He didn't want to sing, but his friends pulled a fast one on him. His buddy Dick pretended to be sick then turned around and videoed the song."

"Whoo hoo! What is this?" Anthony was watching Veronica dance the "Bumpity Bump" with a red faced white haired man as the quartet grew to the size of a chorus. The presentation ended with a picture of Josh and Veronica in robes drinking coffee by a cheery fire in the fireplace. "Ahh, the cabin! Good times..." said Anthony, and Marjorie nodded in agreement. Veronica made a mental note to ask Marjorie about her escapades at the cabin. "Which reminds me, that couch of yours up there could use a replacement, why don't you take that one?" indicating the couch that Josh and Veronica made love on.

"That's awful generous but ah couldn't..." started Josh.

"Hey, it's seen better days, and..." with a sidelong glance at Marjorie, "it gave us Morgan." Morgan is their youngest son. "Maybe you'll have equal luck."

"We can't refuse," smiled Veronica. Then a sudden thought came to mind and put her hand on Josh's chest. "I just remembered something, Andi invited us to go on a Valentine's Day cruise with them on their yacht, maybe to the Bahamas, want to go?"

"What, spend a week with you in a bikini in the Bahamas eating Ye-jin's cooking on their mega yacht? I hope you told them yes before you wasted time asking me."

"Actually, I did, but we may have to babysit Danny and the twins while Andi and Paul are... otherwise engaged."

"Small price to pay," Josh said, and they sealed their vacation plans with a kiss.

"Who has the mega yacht?" Anthony asked.

"Our neighbors, Paul and Andi Jarecki. He's a doctor and the head of Jarecki motors. He came home from the Air Force when his wife died, and he took over his dad's business. He grew the business up and bought his new wife a boat before going back to medicine. He's been asking me to come for a ride all year."

"Well, you can't weasel out of it now," smiled Veronica. "Oh, you guys will love this," she said as she patted Anthony's knee. "Last spring our neighbor Andi and her sister-in-law Macy decided to have a race to the delivery rooms. Two weeks ago Macy went into labor, and Andi started the next day, but Andi gave birth to Daniel eighteen hours before Macy had her little girl Katarina."

"A baby race? That is crazy!" laughed Marjorie, "I love them!"

"It gets better," grinned Josh, "Macy is Canadian by birth; Veronica did an ad shoot with her years ago. Anyhow, she gets sworn in as a US Citizen on the 28th, the day before the party."

"Really?" Anthony's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, if there's anything he loves more than babies, it's America. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Stalinist Russia where antisemitism was as rampant as in Nazi Germany, and he remembered as a child going to his grandparent's citizenship ceremony. He still remembers vividly the tears of joy on the cheeks of both grandparents. "Invite them to the party." It wasn't a request. "Let's call them now."

Veronica hemmed and hawed, John and Macy were pastors, they were getting ready for their church's candlelight Christmas Eve service, and it was Paul and Andi's wedding anniversary, but Ant insisted, so he and his executive assistant retreated behind his desk to make calls. While they did that, Josh moved next to Marjorie, and they made plans of their own.

~~~~~*~~~~~

While the congregation of John's church ooo'd and aww'd over Katarina and Daniel at the candlelight service, Josh and Veronica snuggled together on an ancient couch in his cabin. A fire burned merrily in the fireplace and a small artificial Christmas tree stood guard over a few presents on a table next to the fireplace, the lights on the tree and the mantle twinkled merrily while on the old stereo holiday music from a radio station in Toronto played. The fire snapped and crackled on the hearth in Josh's cabin, the soft flickering glow from the fire illuminated the lovers as they snuggled and watched the flames dancing. Slowly the cabin started to warm, but right now it was still chilly and they cuddled together, wrapped in a warm heavy quilt, sharing their warmth and love, waiting for the heat exchanger in the fireplace to start filling the cabin with warm air.

A mat covered in blankets lay on the floor before the fire inviting them closer, but not yet, it's still too chilly at the moment. Now they snuggled each in a heavy terrycloth robe after a nice hot shower in the bathroom. It was becoming a tradition to check the plumbing then take a hot shower together while the cabin heats up. "We haven't done this for a while," sighed Ronnie happily.

"We've spent at least one night every weekend here in the cabin since..."

"No silly! I mean just snuggle, it's nice. We haven't done this since the storm."

"That's my fault," sighed Josh. "I don't have the self-control to stop you once you start ripping off my clothes..."

"Oh stop," she said and nudged him with an elbow.

Josh pulled her back to himself and nibbled on her neck before reaching in her robe and cupping her firm breast. "What is your bra size?"

Veronica purred with contentment as he gently rolled her nipple between thumb and forefinger. "Thirty-two E."

Josh had ever heard of such a measurement. "There's no such thing... is there?"

"You got proof in your hand. It's a rare size which makes bra shopping is a pain."

"Wow, I always thought an E cup or F cup was supposed to be huge, yours are..."

Veronica rolled away from him, "Gee mister, I'm sorry my mosquito bites aren't big enough for you..." Josh pulled her back and started tickling her causing her to whoop and writhe until she gasped for mercy.

"I was going to say that you're are perfect. I'm sorry, but my ex, she was 38 double D and she was massive."

"Yasmilla?"

"Her name is Yesenia." Josh knew for certain that Veronica was getting Yesenia's name wrong on purpose. He opened Veronica's robe and exposed her breasts to the firelight. He always thought that candlelight and fire light were the perfect illumination source for the human body. He's had girlfriends of all races and colors, his wife was Hispanic, and of course Veronica with her milk white skin, all look so beautiful in the soft yellow light of a flame. Sunlight is good too, but firelight is so much more intimate, so beautiful.

Veronica's breasts are like the breasts of a teenager, they show just some sag when standing and hardly any drifting off towards her armpits when she is laying on her back. Her areola are slightly larger than a quarter and perfectly circular with a defined edge between the milk white of her skin and the dark coral pink of her areola. Her nipples are large as pencil erasers and expressive, sticking out a quarter inch when excited but almost nonexistent when she's not excited. She's learned the hard way that she needs to wear a padded bra at work because if Josh gives her that smile or that waggle of an eyebrow in passing her nipples tell everyone what's on her mind.

"I could look at them all day long and never tire of them." With that he lowered his mouth to a trembling breast and began to suck on her beautiful tit. He nipped hard at her nipple causing her to gasp and arch her back, then he suckled the exquisite pain away. The blond beauty gently rested a hand on the back of her man's head holding him there while her back arched, trying to push more of her breast into his mouth.

"He could make me cum this way," she thought to herself as he switched to the other boob and continued to stoke the fires that he started. She whimpered and gasped as his hand began stroking her pussy through her panties.

He now paused to kiss her, their tongues interwoven, sliding over each other, her heart pounding in her ears. Suddenly a loud pop from the fire and a piece of embers struck the fire screen with a jangle then the fire collapsed. "Shit," muttered Josh and he untangled himself and crawled over to the fireplace to stoke the wood and crank up the heat exchanger. He then closed the glass door which made the fire burn with a spectral slow motion, the flames danced weirdly as the heat exchanger began to pump hot air into the cabin, ceiling fans above spun slowly pushing the warmed air down. He turned and Veronica was right there behind him. He sat down on the mat and she crawled into his lap and they shed their robes and wrapped the quilt around them, now toasty warm from the fire and their closeness.

She broke their kiss and asked, "What's with all this talk about my boobs?"

"I like your boobs, I just wanted to know what size they were."

They reclined on the mat and Veronica rolled on top of Josh and began rubbing her nipples through the hair on his chest. "And now you know. I like your dick, how long is it?" She asked just to see his reaction.

Completely unfazed by her comment Josh said, "Abraham Lincoln was once asked how long a man's legs should be, he said 'long enough to reach the ground.'"

"Please do not tell me your dick is long enough to reach the ground," she said as she rocked her hips back and forth to rub her pussy against his rock-hard cock.

"It's long enough to reach your pussy."

"Good answer," she grinned. In her life she has had cocks of all different lengths and circumferences, but to her the main difference is the man wielding them. She guestimated his cock to be six and a half, maybe seven inches, but it's thick. She's had longer but only Josh is able to give her the orgasms that rolled her eyes back in her head every time. Then a sudden worry clouded her smile over. "Does it bother you that I have had so many different men?"

He thought for a while then said, "That was then, this is now. I want to be the only man in your life, for now and forever. If their memory comes between us then yes, it bothers me a lot." She looked like she was going to cry but he reached up and placed a finger on her lips, "But if they were just steppingstones in the path that brought us together then no, they're of no consequence to me."

"You sure?" she still sounded worried.

"I've had a bunch of women myself. I was a good boy, mostly, before I got married. But when I came home and Yolanda..."

"Yesenia?" Veronica asked knowing he has caught on to her game.

"Yeah, her. When I came home and she was pregnant and living with the jerk that knocked her up in our house, I went on a tear. I fucked any woman that would give me the time of day. Then came that mission where I got all busted up and realized there was so much more that I should be worried about." He looked sad. "I'm not proud, but it happened and now they're all in the past... except for a few pointers I may have picked up along the way."

"Like what?" She sounded suspicious.

"Are you into anal for real? You've teased me about it in the past and I've got a couple of good tips and tricks for that kink."

"I've been known to dabble," she said with a cocked eyebrow, but never with a cock that thick though. She suddenly realized she was jealous! Those other women, they all had her Josh in their lives, in their beds, and she wasn't going to share. "He's mine now!" she shouted in her head to all those other women. Then she knew there was one more thing she needs to talk to him about before they go any further. Slowly she asked, "Is it a deal breaker if I make love to a woman?"

"Now or in the past?" Josh suddenly realized that this was what was truly on her mind.

"We uhhh... we still see each other."

"Is it serious? Are you all... exclusive?" She saw the color drain from his face and his rock hard cock suddenly wilted. He was terrified she realized, but she opened this can of worms, she needs to see it through.

"We're friends, I mentioned her, she's the one that's been teaching me to shoot pool..." Josh nodded, it was only a passing phase... right? She smiled and tried to reassure him, "we're not going to run off together, we just play, and then we play around."

"When was the last time?" he asked, his stomach sank, fearing the worst.

"It was just before Thanksgiving..." she frowned then realized her mistake, she and Josh became lovers less than a week later. "I knew I shouldn't have brought it up." She rolled over and turned her back to him.

"Hey, hey, don't shut me out," he said as he rolled her on her back. "First, thank you for bringing this up," he said with a kiss, "it means you trust me with your emotions. Second, this is what our relationship is all about, clearing the air about our past. Third, if she's fulfilling a need I can't fill then I can't stand in your way..." She saw him trying to be brave, he looked like his whole world was imploding on him. "Am I going to lose you to her?"

"No, it's just something we do, we shoot pool, and the loser licks the winner's pussy." She suddenly turned red, "I can't believe I said that out loud. I can tell her it's over."

That's the same game she and Josh play, best four games out of seven at 8 Ball, loser eats the winner. "Look, if it's not going to break us up its ok with me, just let me know and I'll... I'll spend the night up here in the cabin."

She saw the color coming back to his face, he was starting to process it. "I'll do the same thing if you have a boyfriend over." She gave him a half smile.

"You know I don't like boys, hell, I don't like me most of the time. You can have your mystery lover over whenever you want but... uh... is there any chance I can watch?"

"What? You pervert!"

"That's not a no," he said as he waggled his eyebrows. He was trying to get her to laugh.

"I'll talk to her about it, but I doubt she'll say yes... but if she does, no touching. These evenings are just for us."

"I can live with that; I think it would be so hot to see you with another woman... if I can't touch can I direct the action?"

"You are a pervert!" she shrieked and threw off the blanket and started to get on the couch. Laughing, Josh pulled her back and she dove down and took his now hardening cock in her mouth and bared her teeth as if she was going to bite it off then started growling like an angry dog. The playfulness was back, and they both felt relieved. Veronica's lady lover is something they will deal with in a way that will work for both of them.

"You say that because you love me," he growled happily, "but you don't know how deep my perversions go," he reached down and lifted her back up towards him by the armpits. Laughing she released his cock and surrendered to his hot kisses. He rolled atop her and began running his cock up and down between her nether lips. All their touching and sex talk has gotten them both so hot, she was soaked, and now he was harder than he's been since his teen years.

As he stroked his wet cock up and down, stimulating her clit and pussy lips she arched her hips to get more contact... there... there was perfect. Her wellspring of sweet juices spread over his cock with each stroke which in turn spread over her clit. "That's so good," she gasped, "you're going to make me cum like this."

"I want to," he smiled, "but I want to taste you."

He slipped down between her legs and began kissing his way toward her pussy causing Veronica to groan. He placed his hands on the inside of her knees and pushed upward causing her to curl up in a ball while lying on her back. "What are you... Oh God don't stop!" she was helpless in this position and Josh held her legs there as he began licking and sucking on Veronica sodden pussy. The sensations were immediate and overwhelming. His tongue flickered rapidly over her hypersensitive clit causing jolts of stimulation squeezing excited whimpers out of her.

"I love what you do with your mouth!" she babbled not realizing what she was saying as he gently sucked on her clit and flickered his tongue over her most sensitive spot. She reached down to hold Josh's head in place between her legs and he let go of her legs. She groaned and gasped, reveling in the sensations Josh was eliciting from her body, he was a master at pleasing her, so different from everyone else.

Josh gently grasped her wrists and moved her hands up to her breasts and urged, "Show me Nica, show me how you like it. Show me how you want me to squeeze your breasts."

As he licked her pussy she began kneading her delectable mounds with her hands like a baker working with two perfect balls of dough. She soon began to get firmer, squeezing harder, now she began to roughly squeeze her nipples, twisting and pulling them much harder than Josh had ever dared. "That's so beautiful!" gasped Josh. "I love watching my Goddess Nica instruct me."

Her head remained spinning from what she heard him say, Goddess Nica? He called her his goddess? Veronica was stunned, but at the same time those silly words hit a switch in her. "Don't stop Effy," she gasped, her eyes closed, her head rolling, his tongue sliding against her clit over and over. Now two fingers started sliding in and out of her pussy and she knew she was completely lost to him. "So goooood" Her hands were frantic on her tits and Josh was terrified that she'd hurt them, but the sensations were overwhelming, she couldn't stop if she tried. The tension was built to a bursting point when suddenly she screamed, "I'M CUUUUUMMMMIIINNNGGG!!!"

It was like a trap had sprung, suddenly her arms and legs snapped closed around Josh hold his mouth, tight to he pussy, trapping him aggressively as she screamed and shook. It seemed to go on forever, so good, so explosive. And as she started to come down from her plateau Josh pulled free and quickly slipped his cock into her. It was like throwing gasoline on a fire. She threw her head back and roared as her orgasm rekindled and went into overdrive. Grunting and screaming she grabbed his ass and tried to pull him bodily into her cunt and as another wave of sheer bliss washed over her everything went black...

She finally opened her eyes and saw Josh's smiling face and the sound of the cracking fire. The ancient stereo was playing music softly in the background. "You did it to me again Effy." It wasn't the first time she's fainted in his arms from his lovemaking. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Josh just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "You were out for about five minutes this time."

"You fucker," she sighed. "I need to see if I can make you faint somehow." She reached down and found that his cock was still hard. She began to stroke him gently as he very gently returned the favor and stroked her sex.

For a long time they lay by the fire murmuring and touching each other. So perfect, so loving, it was finally Josh who broke the spell as he felt her relaxing and recovering. "Is that awful or do you like fainting like that?" he asked as her hand started to drive him out of his mind.

"It's a bit scary," she said, then she smiled and softly said, "but it's not horrible. Do it again, I dare you."

He moved between her legs and she guided him in. Veronica gasped as he split her open with his thick cock and began sliding in and out of her pussy just the way she likes it. 'This is the best' she thought to herself, 'making love by a fire, his eyes glittering in the firelight,' she looked up at the vaulted ceiling, the firelight light faintly illuminating the rough carved roof beams far above and she saw that racoon looking down on the lovers. It is a bit of taxidermy that has been in the cabin since the scout troop days. 'It's stuffed, and so am I,' she thought and with a groan of pleasure she wrapped her legs around Josh's legs and began to urge him on. "Yeah baby, just like that," she gasped in encouragement.

It was so good, so romantic to make love by a crackling fire, his cock felt like it weighed ten pounds it was so swollen with desire. He propped himself up on his hands looking at his love's face in the firelight, her breasts bobbing with their thrusts, her chest flushing red with excitement as her orgasm neared, he wants to remember this perfect moment forever and tried to etch it into his memory. "Cum in me!" she gasped, "I want your cum!"

He started fucking her harder, faster. He felt her hand reach between their bodies and began stroking her clit and soon the climb to orgasm neared its peak for Veronica. Her long slender legs wrapped around Josh and she pulled him close and squeezed him tightly with her arms, legs and pussy. "I'M CUMMMINGGG!" she cried between gasps.

Josh followed her to ecstasy with a savage growl, his hips were no longer under his control and he began savagely slamming into her with a series of pounding thrusts then suddenly he drove into her hard. Once! Twice! Three times! Each pounding thrust was punctuated with a grunt from Josh, at the same time he pounded into her she grunted along with him from the force of his thrust. Just knowing that his cock was spurting his life creating semen into her body fanned the fires of her orgasm. She could feel the heat of his seed as he spurted into her.

She held him tight as her orgasm continued to shake her, her fingernails clawing into his back. "Oh God, it won't stop!" she gasped, unsure if she were terrified or bragging. He held her close and kissed her gently, feeling the tremors that rattled through her body as she finally came down from the orgasm. Finally her body relaxed "God!" she said, her bleary eyes opened and sought out his, "when it goes on like that it scares me."

"What did you do about it in the past?"

"It's never happened in the past," she smiled and kissed him. "That's why I'm not letting you go."

As they cooled off, panting and murmuring endearments Josh realized that they were going to be ok. Their relationship may veer toward the weird, but they're going to make it. "Come on baby," he said as he rose and helped her up to her feet and led her to the bedroom that was toasty warm from an electric heater. "It's almost midnight and we have a long drive tomorrow."

"Mmmm, thank you for doing this with me," she purred as he tucked her in then joined her in bed.

"I really can't wait to meet your dad," he said as they cuddled close and fell asleep in each other's arms. Tomorrow is Christmas day, and they plan to drive 70 miles to Erie Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with her dad in the retirement home.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Finally, the night of the party arrived; it was to be held at the top hotel in downtown Buffalo, the Buffalo Statler-Waldorf on December 29th. Veronica, Macy, and Andi spent the day at a salon getting their hair and nails done while Josh spent the day at work dealing with a balky image server. He had chased all of "his troops" out of the office at noon so they could make it to the party on time while he and his supervisor Mark finally got the image server up and running with no time to spare. "You sure you're not coming to the party Marky? It's going to be interesting."

"I don't know, Lorraine wants to go but I hate going downtown."

"You come and bring Lorraine, I guarantee this will be a good one, I have a surprise planned. You won't be sorry."

As they closed up the shop Mark Post bothered Josh with question after question over what the surprise was going to be but Josh refused to answer. Finally in the parking lot Mark looked around and said, "Where's your jeep?" Josh hit the fob in his pocket and Veronica's Lincoln Navigator fired to life. "Da fuck? That's Ms. van Köster's ride."

"Yep, she's getting a ride from some friends and asked me if I'd drive this downtown for her."

Mark's face was a picture of confusion, but he could sense something was up. "I'll see you at the party!" he grinned.

Josh drove to his nearly empty apartment, grabbed a quick shower, dressed in his dark blue suit, white shirt and matching dark blue bow tie, picked up a large flat box wrapped in holiday paper, hopped in Veronica's Lincoln and headed downtown.

Josh stepped into the grand ballroom of the Buffalo Statler-Waldorf and found the party was in full swing. It was the social hour, so people mingled and warmed up at the open bar. The room was decorated in white and silver and gold. White flocked pine trees with gold lights and silver ornaments filled the corners and marked the head table where Veronica sat with Mitch.

With them was Anthony and Marjorie Friedman and the three VP's and their wives. Brandon Mitchell, VP of Sales and Marketing was there with his wife and daughter. He was a tall, handsome man in his late fifties, perfect hair, perfect suit. The most interesting thing (some said disturbing) was the fact that his forty-year-old wife and his twenty-two-year-old daughter looked almost exactly alike. Their radiant blond hair was made up the same, their scarlet dresses with plunging necklines were the same, and with the exception of a wedding ring on his wife's finger, their jewelry was the same. Trophy wife and trophy daughter? As he moved around the crowd, Brandon Mitchell had one on each arm raising eyebrows and erections because both women were extremely "friendly" with the guests.

Throughout the room chains of large gold rings hung from the ceiling on invisible wires, slowly turning, sparkling in the pin spotlights. Most were individual rings but sometimes there were rings in a chain of five, because after all this is December 29th, the fifth day of Christmas. He mentioned it to Marjorie Friedman who made sure that five golden rings were the center piece of the decor.

Josh entered the party with the large flat box wrapped in bright Christmas paper under his arm and he found his table almost immediately. Seated there under a chain of golden rings was Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Paul Jarecki in his dress blue semi formal USAF uniform along with Andi, John, and Macy. Andi and Macy had their babies swaddled in receiving blankets that matched their gowns. Andi's gown was a deep shade of blue that is known as American Blue that came close to matching Paul's uniform, and Macy's gown was Cranberry Crimson and both gowns were designed exactly the same as Andi's white gown from last year. Josh and Veronica had the dresses made for both women as a Merry Christmas and a New Mom gift. Both dresses had deep necklines and were resplendent with sequins that glittered and flashed in the lighting as they moved.

Josh shook hands with Paul and John then scooped Katarina from her mother's arms and sat down leaving an open seat to his left. "There's my baby girl!" he said gently rocking the sleeping infant. "Uncle Josh is going to take you fishing and hunting snipes. You and me and little Josh are going camping every weekend..." Josh isn't allowed to call Danny "Little Josh" when the twins are around so he has to do it here.

"Joshua, you are going to be the worst uncle ever," grinned Macy seeing the "there he goes again" look in Andi's eyes.

"That's my job," he said as he gazed at Katarina who slept peacefully in his arms and wondered what his son or daughter would look like if Yesenia wasn't such a bitch. Katarina is a perfect melding of her parents, while Macy's skin tone is midnight black and John is so pale you'd be tempted to call an ambulance if you saw him, Katarina's skin is a beautiful milk chocolate brown somewhere in the middle. Being a newborn, she has yet to grow into her facial features, but her face is slim like her mother's and her hair is as straight as her dad's hair.

Anthony and Marjorie Friedman came over and greeted Josh who rose and shook their hands. "Mister and Mrs. Friedman, these are the guests I had mentioned, Paul, Adrianna, John, and Marie-Claude and they're all Jareckis. Andi and Macy had a race to the delivery room two weeks ago and Andi won by eighteen hours." Somehow Katarina ended up in Marjorie's arms.

"Look at that smile!" gushed Marjorie as she tickled Katarina's nose, "She's smiling at me!"

"It's just gas," said Anthony, it was the same remark he got from Marjorie every time he held one of their newborn sons or daughters and mentioned the smile.

"It is not fair," pouted Macy, "elle l'a déj� fait, she's done this before."

"That doesn't count, the twins were cesarian," responded Andi and not for the first time. Andi and Macy love each other and have since the moment they met, and they are like real sisters. Even though neither of them has a sister they tend to enjoy a good-natured bicker like sisters often do.

Marjorie who has had seven children smiled and patted Macy on the shoulder and handed Katarina back to her. "It gets easier as you go."

Hearing Macy's French/Canadian accent Anthony said, "You must be our newest citizen," and he extended a hand to shake. "And Veronica tells me you're a doctor?"

"Oui, doctor of psychology."

"AND theology," added John.

Marjorie walked up behind Andi and leaned over to look at Danny who was sleeping peacefully in Andi's arms. "What an amazing race, they're both so beautiful. Veronica tells me that you're a doctor too, what is your specialty?"

"I'm a Pulmonologist with the VA specializing in pulmonary vascular issues," smiled Andi as they shook hands.

"Which are what?" asked Anthony.

Andi took a deep breath in preparation to expel a barrage of syllables, but Josh interrupted, "Please don't get her started, we'll be here all night. And don't let her see that cigar you're carrying."

"Good to know," chuckled Anthony, then to Paul and John he said, "What do you fellows do?"

"I was a flight surgeon when I was on active duty, now I'm a cardiologist with the VA specializing in the effects of pulmonary hypertension on the heart," said Paul.

"And I'm just the pastor at the Springville Congregational Church," said John.

"John is also a doctor of theology," interrupted Macy a little angry that her husband was so modest about his accomplishments.

Paul grinned, "Tell him how you got your degree."

John shrugged. "Ok, I studied theology at the École de théologie évangélique du Québec in Montreal and my doctoral mentor was the former Quebecois fashion model, the Reverend Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais."

"That was you?" Marjorie asked Macy.

"Oui, his thesis was a biblical argument of why I should not be teaching him," said Macy. "It convinced me, so I quit my job and I made him marry me."

After the laughter settled down Josh pointed out, "we have a doctor, a doctor, another doctor, and a doctor-doctor, and me."

Anthony chuckled, "four people, five doctorates and none of you are Jewish? My mother will never believe this. Have a great time at the party!"

As soon as Anthony and Marjorie left, Terri sat down in the empty seat next to Josh putting her between Josh and Paul. "Is anyone sitting here?"

"My date will be showing up later," said Josh.

"Nobody believes that story anymore Josh," said Terri as she took a piece of stuffed celery off of Josh's hors d'oeuvre plate and began to crunch on it. "Did she stand you up or did you strike out?"

"No, really. She'll be here later," he pointed out the large, giftwrapped package under the table. "That's for her."

"See, you should have worn your uniform like the army guy sitting next to me," said Terri as she shook hands with Paul.

"He's Air Force."

"See? You were Air Force, you could be twins, he could help you pick up chicks. Your suit is the same color as his, and you're both wearing a bow tie. Maybe after dinner you two could go..."

"Thank you, Terri, but no."

"Hey, at least you shaved off that beard, you were starting to look like a hermit."

Hoping to deflect Terri's attention, Josh said to Macy, "Terri is from Mississauga Ontario." Which started a conversation between the Canadians which quickly changed to French. Terri changed seats with Josh so they didn't have to shout across him, but he could tell that Terri was talking about him because of the hand gestures and Macy's laughter. At least her attention was diverted. Veronica was seated at the head table while Anthony, Marjorie and the company vice presidents and their wives were circulating among the crowd. Mitch was seated next to her in his Army full dress uniform and was fetching her snacks and drinks. It was agony to not stare longingly at her and her gown which is the same white gown she's worn every year by popular demand and the design basis of Andi and Macy's gowns.

Soon came dinner, it was standard large crowd fare, braised beef tips or roast chicken breast, or vegetable plate, rice pilaf, and vegetable medley followed by sorbet for dessert. Paul leaned over and said to Terri, "Would you like to hold the baby while Macy is eating?"

Terri looked like she was just offered a choice of suicide method. "Hell no! I mean no offence, she's all cute an' shit, but Hell no!"

"Aw, come on," said Josh knowing full well Terri's fear of babies, "why not?"

"No! Those things are contagious! Those adorable little faces, the way they smell, the cute noises they make. If a girl gets her hands on one of those the next thing you know she's out looking for a guy with a steady job."

As table erupted with laughter and Josh held Danny for Andi and bottle fed him letting Andi finish her dinner. Terri took a picture of Josh with the baby for blackmail purposes as Anthony stepped out onto the dance floor with a wireless microphone and a page of notes. Behind him the band was quietly taking their places. "If I could have your attention, please," he said, and the background murmur quickly quieted.

He spoke about the stellar year they had, announced several large accounts they just landed, each announcement met with applause. As he spoke Veronica stepped up next to him, the sequins in her gown glittered under the spotlights. She was holding several plaques that were for the Salesman of the Year, Code Writer of the Year, and Technician of the Year. She handed out the plaques to the winners as Anthony called out their names and accomplishments. Terri whooped and screamed like she was at a hockey game when her friend Jen won the award for Technician of the Year.

He then introduced the guests including Macy and she got a standing ovation for receiving her citizenship, and Andi who also got a standing ovation for winning the "First Annual Springville Baby Race." He then smiled and said "Let's kick off the entertainment part of this shindig with what has become a Andalon tradition. Miss Veronica van Köster and New York National Guard Major Mitchell McDonnell."

Mitch stepped on to the dance floor and soon he and Veronica began to dance as the band struck up a foxtrot. "I thought you were going to ask her to dance," Terri said loud enough for the whole table to hear her. Her thought was to embarrass Josh.

"You're right, I'm going to do it," said Josh as he handed the baby back to Andi and pulled the box out from under the table and handed it to Paul, "Could you hold this for me colonel?"

"Sure," said Paul with a straight face. He was dying to see the look on Terri's face, she was the only person at the table that wasn't in on the plan. Josh took off his blazer and lifted the lid on the box and pulled out another jacket, placing his blazer in the box and returning it under the table. He put on the other jacket which turned out to be his USAF dress blue uniform jacket which was covered with his badges, wings, and ribbons.

"What are you doing?" gasped Terri. "You can't wear that!" Josh had far more ribbons than Paul and Mitch combined. Terri immediately thought that Josh had bought more ribbons to intimidate Mitch.

"I know," said Josh dramatically as Paul gave his uniform a final inspection. The colonel tugged the jacket into place, brushed off the shoulders, and tugged his tie straight. "But I'm trying to impress a lady."

"Are you allowed to wear wings?" scolded Terri, "You're not a pilot!"

"Paul has wings, he's not a pilot," Josh responded. Paul is a flight surgeon and as such wears fight surgeon wings, and his wings were different than Josh's whose wings denote him as a flight crew member, but Terri didn't know that either. Josh also wears a paratrooper badge, a Missile badge for his years as an armament specialist on bombers carrying cruise missiles, and an Aircraft Maintenance badge, along with more than twice as many rows of ribbons as Paul is wearing. When you fly from one hot spot to another and put iron on targets and bullets in bad guys, people tend to give you ribbons. The six stripes on his arms boldly declare his rank as Master Sergeant. Yes, he's not actually allowed to wear the uniform now that he's retired, but no one will actually stop him if he doesn't disgrace it.

"Wish me luck," he said as he snapped Paul a salute. Paul returned the salute, then as if announcing his own impending death, Josh turned to Terri and in a deep steady voice said, "I'm goin' in." He snapped an about face and stepped up to the dance floor followed by John Jarecki with a video camera.

"You're going to get in trouble," warned Terri, then she turned to Macy and said, "Il va se faire abattre � nouveau." (He's going to get shot down again)

Josh stood at attention on the edge of then dancefloor and a murmur went up throughout the audience, was that Josh? What is he doing? The murmuring grew louder as more and more people noticed him standing there at attention. Now people started rising to their feet, even Anthony was befuddled. "What is that guy doing?" he asked Marjorie. He didn't expect an answer but she got her phone/camera ready and smiled. "Watch."

Now the dancers came close, Mitch in his Army mess dress, Veronica in her traditional white gown, the same one she wore at the beauty pageants. Like Josh was proud that he could still fit in his uniform, she was proud (and a bit relieved) that she could still fit in the dress. Now Josh came to life. Back ramrod straight he stepped up behind Mitch and tapped him on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

The couple stopped and Mitch turned to Josh and was more than a little shocked to see Josh in his dress blues. "God damn," he whispered seeing Josh's ribbons, wings, and badges, "Holy shit sarge... step aside and let someone else win the war, will ya sarge?"

"Will do sir," said Josh as they shook hands, then with a sharp salute that Mitch returned, Josh turned to an utterly stunned Veronica. She eyed him up and down, entirely speechless as Paul bowed slightly and said, "Nica, may I have this dance?"

"Oh my God," gasped Veronica as she melted into his arms, "You said you would never wear your blues ever again..." They had planned for Veronica and Mitch to pretend to be a little surprised to see Josh, but when he appeared in his semi-formal dress blue uniform without telling them, they honestly were shocked. Veronica was so honored that he wore the uniform for her that she was moved to tears. "Oh Effy," was all she could say and she melted into his arms.

"For you I'll make this and many other exceptions." He pulled her tight and she smiled has her man began to lead her in the dance. As they picked up the dance that they practiced dozens of times, Josh said, "You look so beautiful, I know exactly when I fell in love with you."

"When?" she said breathily. She was exhilarated that he was finally holding her as tightly as she desired. In practice she kept telling him to hold her tighter, tonight he got it perfect.

"It was a year ago when I saw you dance for the first time, then you walked through the crowd straight to me, and you called me Effy."

"So sweet," whispered Veronica. She smiled and blinked away the tears. "For me it was much longer."

"When was it?" asked Josh as he tried to not concentrate on his steps. He did so much better when he let the music and the feel of his lover in his arms guide his steps. "Was it when we went to the Ellicott Manor?"

She smiled at his joke, that was when they first publicly admitted their feelings for each other. "It was when you came into my office for your HR briefing." Normally Sophia in HR does that, but Veronica is HR trained and will fill in for Sophia when needed...

A week after the annual party where they first met and Josh fell in love with her, just a few days into the new year, Anthony Friedman tapped on the connecting door between his office and Veronica's office and strolled in. There are few locked doors in the Andalon building and the door between her and Ant's office is never locked. Veronica had decided that no matter how busy she was, she was never too busy for the man who rescued her from the publishing firm she was trapped in several years ago. Anthony always treats her like family and sometimes that's more important than a hefty paycheck. "Hey Veronica, do you have time to do me a favor?"

The first rule of business is whenever the CEO asks any question, the answer is always... "Yes," even if you don't have the time. The next rule is "make the time."

"Sophia is really jammed up today, and our new hire over in Mark Post's group has to do a survey of our equipment in the field. He needs to hit every remote customer between here and Syracuse before the end of the quarter and he hasn't had his HR intro briefing yet. Can you handle it for him?"

Veronica looked at the piles of folders she had on her desk and the mind-numbing report that she was putting together for a presentation for Anthony. He needed that report to give a sales pitch to a very lucrative customer that he was 'romancing.' It was going to take another week to piece it together and the customer was due here in two days. "Sure," she said closing up her laptop. "Give me three minutes to straighten up my mess and..." she looked up and there was Josh.

"Sorry," he said softly. "I can step outside if you need Nica."

She saw Anthony's smile as he closed his door then turned her attention to Josh. That smile, that southern accent, and he remembered the pet name her Grandmother had for her. She realized that she was going to have to change her panties right after this briefing. "No, Effy, sit down. I'll be right with you."

The HR briefing normally takes thirty minutes tops, but two hours later they were just winding up their chat. They spent the time with small talk and laughing, she was taken by his polite southern charm and the witticisms delivered in that perfect baritone voice. To this day Veronica can't remember if they actually covered the HR briefing completely, the loose-leaf binder was open to the HR briefing she was supposed to give, but their minds were only on each other.

"It was that day I gave you the HR introduction," she said. "We spent the afternoon laughing and just being nice to each other. That's when it happened."

"Oh yeah," smiled Josh, "that was the day that Anthony took Sofia out to lunch and said I had to get my briefing from you."

She tried hard not to laugh; he took Sophia to lunch so she could spend time with Josh? That was so Anthony. For her part Veronica was overwhelmed, she almost wordless. Seeing the man that she loved in his dress blues stunned her and she wanted to know the story behind every brightly colored ribbon on his chest. "You look so..." she couldn't finish, tears of joy were still welling up. "Thank you so much," she finally whispered.

The song ended and as they drew to a stop Josh held up a finger indicating to the band and to Anthony that they wanted one more. Anthony raised the microphone he was holding and said, "Let's give them one more dance folks, shall we?" There was applause from the darkened party and as the band's female vocalist stepped forward, the band started to play the most beautiful of country waltzes.

I'll always remember

The song they were playing

The first time we danced and I knew

As we swayed to the music

And held to each other

I fell in love with you

They always opened their practice sessions with country waltzes to warm up because Josh said he was most comfortable with them, and it showed. And now they danced to the beautiful three-quarter time ballad, swirling around the dance floor, her gown glittering in the spotlights, his back ramrod straight, his uniform once again a part of him. Every step was in unison, every twirl, every dip looked like they did it together for years, and all the while Josh whispered soft endearments to her.

The men and women of Andalon were utterly shocked, they all consider Veronica to be more than Anthony's executive assistant, she was their sister and in many ways their patron saint. Beautiful, sweet, incredibly smart and efficient, she was the personification of their company, and now she's dancing with one of us worker bees? Joyful confusion coursed through the crowd as men and women tried to explain to the person they brought what was happening. They murmured with each other in complete surprise, yet the couple danced like they were born to dance with each other. Cameras started to flashed as the dance progressed and John caught every moment on video.

Across the room Terri watched her boss dance with the most elegant, unreachable woman she ever knew. She was in shock. "Holy shit, he can dance?" She turned to Andi and said, "He can barely walk, and now he's dancing?" Andi almost spit the water she was drinking onto Danny. Throughout the crowd the reaction was the same, grouchy ol' Josh Gravely was dancing with the beautiful, elegant, regal Veronica van Köster?

Macy leaned toward Terri and said, "he told you he was going to ask her to dance with him, why did you not believe him?"

"I believed he would ask her, but I didn't think she would do it!"

Veronica could think of nothing more than dancing right off this dance floor and heading up to the suite they reserved up on the twenty eighth floor. Josh leaned close and whispered, "This is the first song we danced to at Paul's house, remember?" She nodded remembering their first dance and how surprised she was to find that he could actually dance. She remembered that back then how right it felt to be in his arms just as it does now, just like the song say. Was it a premonition set to music? "I was already madly in love with you before we ever saw our first snowflake together Nica," he said.

"Effy, I've never felt so loved, so secure..." she fought to hold back the tears.

"One more surprise," he said softly as the song headed into the final stanza.

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

Could you be my partner

Every night

When we're together

It feels so right

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

She found that they had stopped in the middle of the dance floor, what was he doing? He stepped back then slowly dropped to one knee... she heard Terri cry "WAAAA?"

Now he pulled something out of his pocket... "Nica, without you I am nothing, then you showed me how wonderful life truly is. Your love completes me. Please be my partner and share this dance with me... for the rest of our lives." He opened the little box in his hand and a dream she never dared to realize suddenly came true. Through the welling tears of joy, she saw the ring that Mr. Wetzel made with her diamond in the setting they fell in love with...

The crowd stood stunned, is he really proposing? A hundred people held their breath as this regular guy who had somehow transformed into a knight was proposing on bended knee to someone that they all considered royalty.

She covered her mouth with both hands and nodded. At first the word wouldn't come out, she was too excited. Then the dam broke and she cried "Yes!" loud enough for all to hear... and he was standing, putting the ring on her shaking finger... now they were holding each other tightly, kissing as the band replayed the last chorus of "Could I Have This Dance."

Anthony and Marjorie came up and wrapped their arms around the couple as the crowd clapped. "Let's go sit down before we fall down," said Josh. He led her back to the table and Terri stood there with her mouth wide open. "My date is here now," Josh told her.

"Jeezuz boss," said Terri in total shock. "When you ask a girl to dance you don't hold back shit!"

During their dance the wait staff had appeared and was busy placing bottles of sparkling wine and sparkling cider on the tables, a little surprise that Marjorie had engineered. As Josh and Veronica shook hands and hugged their neighbors and friends at their table the shocked murmuring of the crowd almost drown out anything that a completely stunned Terri and Anthony said. Veronica ended up sitting on Josh's lap and well-wishers streamed to them to congratulate and take pictures. Someone asked Josh for a big smile and to get him to smile Veronica whispered in his ear "Ephraim! How are you enjoying the party?" He broke into great heartfelt smile captured by the company photographer. "You remember?" asked Veronica softly.

"Those were the first words you ever said to me."

"Do you remember what you said?"

"I remember being surprised that you knew how to properly pronounce my name, and I'm pretty sure it was the last time you used it."

"Ef-rum, how hard can that be?" asked Terri as she munched on chocolates from the desert tray ignoring the glares that she was receiving from Josh and Veronica.

"Ok besides Veronica, show of hands, who was surprised by that?" asked Anthony into his microphone as he stepped out on the dance floor. The response was nearly universal including Anthony. "Ok besides Josh, show of hands, who knew that was going to happen? This time the only hands raised were Paul, Andi, John, Macy, Anthony's wife Marjorie, and the entire band.

"My own neighbors?" shrieked Veronica as she leapt to her feet when she saw all of the Jarecki's, Paul, Andi, John, and Macy lifting their hands raising laughter from the Andalon staff gathered around. "You didn't say a word," she growled at Paul. "I held your wife's hand while she was in labor, and you didn't say a word."

"Now you know how I feel," said Terri as she inspected the ring on Veronica's finger. "I'm Josh's best friend and he didn't say a word."

"Sorry Terri, but I'm going to marry my best friend," said Josh as he tried to kiss a laughing Veronica.

As the laughter died Anthony raised a glass and the microphone. "Let's have a couple of toasts," he waited for everyone to raise their glass. To our dear friends, my right hand, the helmsman of the Starship Andalon, Veronica van Köster, and the engineer of that proud ship, our data center hardware manager e'Frame Gravely, tonight a happy loving couple, Ronnie from Erie and Josh from Georgia, may your wedding be joyful, your union be fruitful, and your children be grateful. Nostrovia!"

"Nostrovia!" cried the crowd and they either sipped or drained their wine. This was a shock to them all;

no one saw the connection between them, Veronica is a beautiful, knowledgeable, soft spoken superwoman whose help at the helm of the ship kept Andalon from the dangerous shoals of the business world. Josh on the other hand was the gritty technician who could fix anything with a hammer, sleeves rolled up, clipboard at the ready, a thousand questions in that southern drawl that could brook no nonsense. They were never seen together, they nodded to each other politely in passing. They even parked in different lots. Everybody knew Veronica and Ephraim, but nobody but Anthony and Marjory knew Ronnie and Josh. Anthony is a wizard at hiring the right person for the right job, and this time his talent paid off splendidly.

"Is everybody refilled? Ok then, our second toast is to ourselves, and to each other. We did fantastic this year, and next year looks better! They said we were crazy for building such a big facility in Orchard Park and already we're looking for more room! Next year we're planning to build a dedicated call center facility in Cheektowaga! Cheers to an incredible year and let's make next year another Andalon year! Nostrovia!"

"Nostrovia!"

"Now let's get this party rolling!"

As the dance floor started to fill with revelers, Josh and Veronica went up to the head table and shook hands with the VPs and their wives. When they got to Anthony and Marjorie Josh said "Thank you for all of your support and this great party, Ronnie is going to dance one more dance with Paul and when this winds down, we're heading up to our suite. Y'all still going to join us?"

Marjorie came around the table and gave them a hug. "You didn't even tell me... my own boss!" said Veronica as they hugged.

"He swore me to secrecy, I had to make arrangements with the band and get that wine out to the tables for the toasts. Hey, we need to talk before Monday." Marjorie wanted to talk about a contract that was on the schedule for Monday AM but there is NO business talk allowed at the party. Sure, everybody talked about work, but conducting business was strictly forbidden.

"We're going to be at his cabin all weekend," Veronica started but Josh corrected her by mouthing the words, "Our cabin." Veronica smiled and said, "We're going to be at our cabin, would you like to join us Sunday afternoon?"

"That would be great, we still have the directions," said Marjory.

Just then Mitch came up and tugged at Josh's arm. "I want one more dance with Vicky before you leave honey." Over the past few weeks Mitch and Josh have been calling each other by endearments in jest, it usually ends up with Mitch threatening to steal Veronica's man. Their banter is primarily aimed at getting a rise out of Frank, Mitch's husband.

"Let's do it darlin'," said Josh and the three headed out to the dance floor as the band finished up a tune. Veronica and Mitch stopped in the middle of the floor, Josh stepped up to the band stand and the singer yielded her microphone to him. He started his song with the mantra of all bad public speakers. He tapped the microphone twice and said, "Is this thing on?"

When the crowd saw that it was Josh at the bandstand they stopped what they were doing to find out what the man that surprised the entire company had to say. "Ok, Mitch and Veronica want to do their last dance together, an' they're going to do a dance that I taught 'em. Me! Thas right. This ol country boy taught a professional dancin' coach a dance an' they asked me to karaoke the song because where I'm from, y'all ain't country if you can't sang this song...... Hit it boys!"

The band broke into a base heavy rock-a-billy beat that many of the dancers recognized in an instant. As Mitch and Veronica broke into a spirited Texas Swing, Josh let his South Georgia drawl break free

Everybody goin' out and having fun

Ah'm a fool for stayin' home and havin' none

Ah can't get over how she set me free

Woh, lonesome me...

~~~~~*~~~~~

The party went on for quite a while. Josh and Veronica took up station in front of a cluster of the white flocked pine trees and greeted well-wishers for what seemed to be an entire hour. After that Andi, Macy, and Veronica took to the dance floor in their identically styled red, white, and blue gowns, and they taught a new generation of revelers the joys of the Macarena. While they were dancing Josh was approached by a pair of nearly identical drop dead gorgeous blond women. "Hey sailor," said one of the blonds. Josh guessed it was the mom, except for eighteen years of age separation the two women were nearly identical.

"Ma'am, when I'm dressed like this, I go by sarge, but I prefer Josh."

"I'm Emily Mitchell," she said in that breathy voice that would give the bronze statue of George Washington over in Layfette Park an erection.

"And I'm Audrey Mitchell," said the younger twin who now clung to his arm.

"Good Lord," he thought, "they got matching names too." He realized that he had two breasts pressing against him, one from each of the Mitchell women. "How may I help y'all?"

"Y'all... that's so cute!" giggled Audrey.

"We were wondering if you'd like to dance with one... or maybe both of us," Adriana's lips were dangerously close to his ear.

Outside Josh remained stoic, gentlemanly. Inside he was flashing back and forth between nervous and angry. The way Emily said dance inspired thoughts of a more horizontal form of recreation and if he were a weaker man, he'd be dragging the both of them to the elevator right now... or more accurately, allowing himself to be dragged off to the elevator by these two sexpots.

He settled on angry, he just proposed to the most wonderful woman he's ever met and these two women saw him do it, yet they're hitting on him like they didn't notice? And holy crap, her husband, her father, is standing ten feet away pretending not to notice! A couple of years ago he' have been all over this and would give these two women a fucking that they'd feel ringing in their pussy's for a year. But the sheer arrogance of this! Steady Josh, he told himself, be polite. You may be misreading this whole situation, and their sugar daddy helps sign your paycheck. "Miss Emily, Miss Audrey, I'd like to kindly thank you for the invitation, it's one I shall surely remember and always treasure, but I love my Veronica truly and deeply. Ah'm sorry ma'am, but my dance card is now full for the rest of my life."

The younger blond, Audrey, made a little whimper and seemed to melt with his salvo of Southern Gentlemanly Charm. He could see in her longing eyes that a strict but polite gentleman was exactly what turned this girl on. On the other hand, her mom bristled for a moment, maybe she was the kind that was looking for a ol' redneck horndog she could lead around on a leash. Emily regrouped and went back to her seductress mode. She traced around his ribbon rack with an elegant finger as she asked "Then, could we pose for a few pictures?"

"That would rightly be my pleasure," he said in that panty warming drawl and Emily lead him back to the trees where he and Veronica posed before. As they lined up Josh was shocked to find that the photographer was Robert Mitchell, the husband/father of these two. The moment he raised his DSLR camera and said "Smile!" Josh felt a pair of hands squeeze his ass.

~~~~~*~~~~~

As Veronica toed off her shoes, Paul offered her some advice. "Honey," said Paul placing a hand on Veronica's shoulder. "I've known Josh for a couple of years, we both spent some lonely, miserable days fishing together, looking back I don't know how either of us survived. It was awful, we both bought our land to fight the loneliness, something constructive to do in the day while we waited out the lonely nights. Believe it or not, it was like we both knew that Andi and Ronnie were out there waiting for us, but the wait was a nightmare. Andi and I are so happy for the both of you, that storm came in the nick of time for Josh, we were getting so worried about him." His words reminded Ronnie that he and Andi were brought together by a snowstorm too.

"What... why were you worried about him?"

"I'm right here people, you could at least pretend you know I'm listening," said Josh as he looked through the pictures on his phone. He had asked several people to take photos of his dance with Veronica and send him a copy.

Andi was breastfeeding little Danny, she had a modesty cover made from the same material as her dress, as did Macy. She looked up and said, "watching you dance together that first day in our library we knew... I've never seen Josh so happy." They were sitting in a suite that Josh had rented as a present for Ronnie, he was pretty sure that she would want to unwind after the emotions of tonight, and he was right. After all the eating and dancing and pictures and emotions, she was spent.

So many well-wishers! She wasn't upset at Josh for proposing in front of everyone, in fact it was the right thing to do. If he had proposed to her someplace else, word still would have gotten out at work and traveled around the company like wildfire. She'd have nothing but a string of well-wishers at her office door and she wouldn't get anything done for days. Right now, there are many well-wishers, but work isn't being interrupted and now they have to take the elevator to the 28th floor where their luxury suite was located. By Monday things would have settled down and only the dedicated few that really wanted to see her would knock on her office door.

Josh called this little party an "After Glow." He, Veronica, Katarina and Danny and their parents could get out of the noise of the party but still enjoy a party along with Mitch and Frank and anyone else who wanted to unwind yet still enjoy their beverages. Marjorie insured that the office interns were acting as wait staff running drinks and snacks up to her "daughter's" engagement party. Josh was sitting on a big comfy easy chair and after that bit of encouragement from Paul, Veronica ended up sitting on his lap. She had his Air Force blouse (suit coat) on her lap and was trying to get him to decode the mystery of the ribbons. "Ok, what's this one? The one with the three little footprints."

"Those are oak leaves," Josh explained. "You get an oak leaf every time you get another one of those ribbons. That one is the Air Force Good Conduct Medal."

"So, you were good three times?" Veronica asked. She was getting very confused.

"That's more than I woulda guessed," said Terri, she was sitting near them in a folding chair closely watching the decoding of the ribbons.

"Actually, I have four, the ribbon counts as one, then each leaf counts as an additional ribbon."

"So, you were good four times?" grinned Paul stoking the fire. Officers don't get the good conduct medal and some young lieutenants feel some jealousy over that. The Good Conduct Medal is an actual medal that can be worn on the USAF Mess Dress, many ribbons do not have a medal associated with them.

"You have to have a spotless record of conduct for four years to earn each award," explained Paul.

"I thought you said you retired early," said Terri who was still amazed that someone she knew had a spotless record of conduct for sixteen years.

"I was planning to stay in longer, but Uncle Sam had used me up and sent me home." He had re-enlisted and was planning a few more years in uniform, but the Air Force doctor said no more and sent him home on full disability. His commander was able to keep him in a full sixteen years.

"Ok, you have a leaf on the purple one, what's that for?" asked Veronica. Her mind spun; she was engaged to a hero! She wanted to know everything, what he did, where he went, how he felt.

For his part Josh was overwhelmed, his ex-wife just didn't care, as long as she had a roof over her head and cash in the checking account, he could be digging ditches in hell for all she cared. Every ribbon, every award was done at first to impress her, but as she grew colder, he began taking every dangerous mission he could, demanding more and more out of his crews. Did he do that to impress her or was he suicidal? Now he has a lover that actually cares for him, how far could he have gone in his career with her waiting for him to return home? How much more pride would he have taken in his work knowing she was behind him under the umbrella of his protection. How much safer would he have acted knowing that she was there waiting anxiously for his return?

"That purple one with the heart is for the injuries I suffered when my plane was shot up and had that rough landing and I got bounced around," he said praying she wouldn't argue when he refused to answer the next question.

"What about the leaf?"

"That is a classified incident, I can't discuss it." His heart sank, he didn't want to keep secrets from his fiancé, but he was required to. "If anyone asks just tell them that I cut my thumb opening a beer can."

Veronica turned to Paul, her face a mask of confusion and concern but he just shook his head. Now Andi joined in too, it didn't happen often but on occasion she would ask a patient at the VA where such and such a scar or condition came from, and the patient would say the exact same thing that Josh just said. "He's not allowed to talk about it honey," said Andi.

Paul patted her shoulder and said, "When a flier on a gunship says 'it's classified' quite often it's a pretty bad story, politically or militarily they're stories that you end up wanting to unhear. He's probably got a pocket full of ribbons and medals he's not allowed to wear because of the classified nature of the mission." Josh nodded in agreement.

"I know it's tough," said a very concerned looking Andi, "just be glad he came home."

"What's with the letters?" interrupted Terri. This wasn't the first time she interrupted a conversation that was heading in a direction that caused Josh some pain. He wished it was because Terri has his back and is concerned for him, but most likely it's because she's pretty oblivious to what's going on around her. She was now indicating ribbons that had an R and a C device.

"The R is for Reading; the C is my grade on my promotion exam..."

"Stop!" cried Veronica nudging Josh. "What are they for?"

"What did you do?" Terri was bug eyed in anticipation of a war story.

"The C stands for combat. My team and I put a few fancy new weapons into a mud hut containing the command staff of a bunch of bad guys turning them into something that resembled chunky style raspberry jelly. The fighting in that entire province of Buttfuckistan ended immediately."

"Brutal!" Terri grinned. "What's with the R?"

"I told you, that one stands for Reading. I finished the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and turned in a book report to my commander."

"No really, what's it for?" Terri wasn't going to be ignored.

"If he didn't answer it by now," said Andi, "I think that means he can't talk about it... or he just forgot."

"I think we heard enough," declared Veronica. Everyone was beginning to droop, the wine and cider was gone, Terri had polished off all the snacks, and Veronica was anticipating a nice warm shower with Josh. Besides, she wanted to tease him in private about the Mitchell girls.

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Where is my blue blazer?" asked Josh as he relaxed in bed. After their shower he had searched the suite while Veronica made herself up, he was sure that he had brought that blazer upstairs with them.

"Are you sure Emily and Audrey didn't take it home with them?" came the taunt from the bathroom.

"That's not going to end any time soon, is it?" he asked.

"I your blazer home with Paul and Andi," called Veronica. "And no, it's not going to end for a long, long time." Josh frowned, not just because of an anticipated year or two of teasing but because he'll have to wear his uniform home. He was hoping that tonight would be the last time he will ever wear it. Still, he was proud to have worn it. Not at all because of the medals and badges, and because he's been out of the service for years and it still fits, (that's saying something about him or maybe about the virtues of lite beer) but because Veronica liked seeing him in it. Paul was right when he convinced Josh to wear it.

"What do you think," said Veronica as she emerged from the bathroom wearing only a towel. She can make a towel look spectacular. There was merriment in her eyes as she continued her thought, "...if we... sell the house and move into the cabin?" She handed him a magazine full of ideas for log homes.

"You know, there's a reason why I had an apartment in Orchard Park," he said as he flipped through the magazine. The log homes in the magazine exceeded ten thousand square feet of living space, his cabin is a fraction of that number.

"Yeah, you were stuck in a long-term lease." She dropped her towel and slid into bed with him. Like all hotels, the mattress was over firm and under comfortable.

"What if we have kids? We'd have to expand the cabin to accommodate them, we only have five hundred feet to work with."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" she said as she snuggled up and gave him their subtle little signal that she wanted sex, she grabbed his cock.

He grinned as she kneaded his cock and put his arm around her and held her close and said, "one more surprise for you Nica." He pulled his phone out from under the pillow, scrolled through a few pages then started a video and handed the phone to Veronica who was clearly not happy that he brought the phone to bed.

On the phone she saw a video of an old man, beaten down by long years and plain old hard work, but he was still proud and strong at heart. "Daddy!" she sighed. Her father looked at the camera and gave Veronica a smile, the likes of which she hasn't seen in years. He looked so happy!

"That's quite a man you found there Ronnie. The reason why he sent you out to get lunch was because he wanted to talk to me. While you were gone, he..." her dad's voice tightened up, he was having problems finding the words. He pulled it together however, "he asked me for your hand in marriage..."

Veronica teared up and groaned "Oh daddy..." On the video he sniffed and daubed his eye with a tissue, took a deep breath and continued. "I know it hasn't been easy for you all these years and I haven't been able to be there for you when you needed me most, but I'll sleep easy tonight knowing you found a man you can depend on for the rest of your life. Go with my blessing, enjoy your life and don't be afraid to share what's in your heart with that man, he's got broad shoulders, he can take it." He smiled and spoke to Josh who was off camera. "You're really going to propose to her in front of the entire workforce?"

"Yes I am," said Josh off screen, "my pastor John is going to video it for us, I'll make sure you get a copy."

"What if she says no?"

"Then I suppose I'll get a room down here; we can play shuffleboard on league night."

Her dad turned back to the camera, "Please darling, say yes, he can't play shuffleboard to save his ass..."

As the video came to an end Veronica groaned "Oh you..." and buried her face in Josh's chest weeping tears of joy. Josh reached over to turn the light off, but she stopped him. "Leave the light on," she whispered. "I like to see you," she said, and she began kissing his chest. "Thank you for doing that, it was so sweet." She was near tears again.

"What did the restaurant down in Erie say about our lunch order?" Josh asked.

"Huh?" That confused Veronica, why would he ask that? "Oh, they said that they the order wrong and had to remake it all." She looked up at him confused. "Why...?"

"Your dad and I had such a great talk, I called the restaurant and told them what I was doing and asked them to delay you."

"You did not!"

"I sure did," he grinned.

"Just to talk to daddy? that was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." She collapsed against his chest weeping with joy. Her daddy was number one in her life and to sit down one on one with her daddy and explain to him what he was going to do... wait a minute... "So, my daddy knew you were going to propose in front of everybody tonight?"

"Yeah, he got a kick out of it."

"So, my boss knew, my daddy knew, my neighbors knew, the band knew... did you tell the restaurant in Erie Pennsylvania also?"

"Not all the details but..."

She sat up, straddled his lap and glared at him. "e'Frame Yashua Gravely!" she cried as loud as she could and smacked him in the upper arm as hard as she could, "I can't believe you did that! The whole world found out before I did! What do you have to say for yourself?"

'Middle name?' he thought. 'This girl's ready for children.' His eyes softened like puppy eyes and in his soft, Georgia baritone voice said, "Good lord your tits are beautiful when you're angry!"

"You goofy fucker," she laughed, kissing him. When they broke the kiss, she started kissing her way to his neck where she found her favorite spot and attached herself like a tic.

"Ow! Hey, what are you doing? I have to wear my uniform home tomorrow; I can't have a hickey in uniform!" he cried as she sucked hard on his neck. "What about work? What do I tell them... at my age!"

"Oh hush, you'll look great," she said as she admired her work, then began to kiss her way down his shoulder and across his chest. Soon she found his nipple and gently sucked and licked the sensitive nub. She gently licked and nipped at the tiny nerve center. She knew from previous lovers that a man's nipples can be quite sensitive, but women like their nipples stimulated much more aggressively than most men, which appears to be the case with her fiancé. He groaned and writhed beneath her sucking and nipping and finally he pushed her off. "You don't like?" she asked.

"I do like! But that's too much of a good thing," he gasped. "It was starting to get painful."

"Oh, you poor baby," she teased. "You don't seem to have that problem down here," she said with a squeeze to his throbbing cock. She then rolled to the side of the bed where she searched through her purse then rolled back to Josh who caught the flash of gold in her hand meaning that her old boyfriend Bob was back. "You sit back and watch," she purred.

"You brought a vibrator? To the company party?" He was incredulous. "Did you expect me to get drunk and pass out on you?"

"It wouldn't have been the first time it's happened to me," she said with a tinge of anger to her voice. Actually, it's happened several times and she was beginning to think that she was the reason why these powerful men were drinking themselves to oblivion. Besides Mitch her gay dance instructor, Josh was the first date she's had in ages that didn't get stinking drunk by the end of the evening. "You told me that you would like to watch me and Bob... maybe me and some of his friends?" She smiled as she licked the rounded bullet point of Bob.

"Yes ma'am!" Josh grinned as he sat up on the bed and watched as she got herself settled.

Veronica fluffed up several pillows and reclined on them then planted her feet on the mattress. "Watch me," she sighed. "This is what I did in Anthony's office while I was waiting for you." She put her gold chromed plastic vibrator nicknamed Bob (Battery Operated Boyfriend) in her mouth and sucked on it gently. "It was midnight, and you went out to shovel the exits clear then started replacing that bad server, and I was all alone... thinking of you." She turned Bob on low and touched it to her nipple. She gasped a little and her back arched as the buzzing toy contacted the nerve bundle on top of her breast. "I remember thinking how much better your mouth would feel here. I was right, but I had no idea how much better it would be."

"How much better is it?" he smiled.

She held a finger to her lips. "Sssshhhh. I'm reminiscing."

"Sorry," he apologized while grinning and sat back to watch the show.

Veronica traced the tip of Bob around a perfect areola causing her nipple to harden and swell. "My nipples were so hard that they were starting to hurt," she pouted, "and it was all... your... fault..." she tugged at a perfect pink nipple, pulling it and twisting it gently between thumb and forefinger. It felt like there was a high voltage line from her nipple connected to her pussy. As she pinched and twisted her nipple her empty pussy clenched in sympathy. "I needed you so bad, but you were gone!"

She now cupped that breast moved the buzzing plastic toy to her aching nipple. With her thumb she spun the knob on the base of Bob until her toy was buzzing loudly. The sound filled the room like a miniature chainsaw, and she whimpered, "Bob was with me, and I had him set to high..." She brought the loudly buzzing golden sex toy down her neck and toward her nipple ever so slowly. Josh watched enraptured as the shining golden toy slowly drew closer to her hard nipple, his mouth watered and he ached to push her hands away and suckle that pink morsel atop her beautiful softball sized breast.

Finally the harshly buzzing toy touched her nipple and her body jerked as the sudden harsh jolts of stimulation shot through her causing sensory overload. "It was too much! I think it scared me it was so strong," Veronica gasped as she reminded herself how much Bob stimulated her nipple.

"Is it bad?" Josh asked.

"You tell me," Veronica said as she brought Bob up to Josh's nipple.

Josh convinced himself that he could "man through it" because it's just a little off balance electric motor, how bad could it be? But when Veronica touched his nipple it was like a sudden electrical explosion, there was nothing likeable to it at all. He jumped back and almost fell off the bed the involuntary impulse to get away was so strong. "Damn! That thing is angry!" he gasped.

"Bob can be mean to me," she pouted. "I remember wishing I could suck my own nipple." She tried again to bring her nipple to her mouth but try as she might, she still fell inches short of her goal.

"Yesenia could do that," said Josh.

"My pool instructor Rhiannon can do that too," said Veronica as she turned the vibration speed of bob down. "This is what I had to do with Bob on that dark and stormy night..." She pulled a sheet over her breast and turned Bob down to his lowest and began to draw circles around her hard nipple with Bob. "This is Bob at his best, nice and gentle." She arched her back and moaned as the delightful sensations coursed through her body. "I didn't know what kind of lover you were going to be, all I knew is that I wanted you soooo badly and Bob was there to help."

Josh watched as his fiancée gently pleasured herself, her gasps and mewls of pleasure made his cock harder than he could remember it being, no woman he had ever slept with knew to indulge his voyeuristic side, the side most men have. Now Veronica's left hand slipped under the sheet and her middle two fingers, one now wearing a ring she once could only dream about, began gently stroking her clit in slow, delightful circles. "I remember thinking how I've had so much sex in my life, but you offered something better. I didn't know how empty my previous affairs really were until I practically raped you that night and you said that you didn't want our first time to be a quicky, that you wanted our first time to be special."

Just saying those words almost set off an orgasm, she was so angry when he pushed her back, but when he said that he wanted their first time to be special she knew he was something special. Now her fingers started circling her clit faster, her breath coming in little pants and gasps. "Oh Effy!" she gasped, "Why couldn't we have met years ago?" she gasped and sighed as she pulled off the sheet and moved Bob down to her pussy and began sliding Bob up and down between her pussy lips, the gold plastic glittered with her moisture. Not for the first time Veronica wondered if a woman's body was designed to have a man's cock sliding between her folds like Bob is now... if not, why would you locate the clit outside of the vagina?

"Here, sit up," Josh gently urged her.

"But I want to show you..."

"I know Nica, but let's sit like this..." he positioned himself behind her, fluffed up a few dozen of the scores of pillows that hotels seem to think is necessary, then leaned back against the headboard and pulled Veronica back against his chest. It took a little bit of wriggling to get comfortable but soon Veronica was laying between Josh's legs, resting back against his chest. "I always wanted to try this, just laying together while you and Bob or any of his friends had some fun."

"Why? What made you think of this?"

"There was many a time I'd get off the flightline after a long work night or a hairy mission and Yasmilla..."

"Yesenia."

"Whatever. I'd be all burnt out and she'd be wantin' some and I thought if we could do this, we'd be close, she'd get off, I'd get a chance to recover and everybody's happy. But she'd have no part of this."

"Are you mad about it?" she asked.

"No, not anymore. Just sad. I don't think she'd a been happy with me at all, we didn't have enough in common, I don't think she loved me, just my flight suit." It was then he realized that he was killing Veronica's mood. "I was over her years ago. Long before we met."

"Are you sure?" she asked as she pulled herself up to kiss him.

"Positive. I actually feel sorry for her, she probably has five kids from seven different fathers and weighs about three hundred pounds. As for me," he kissed Veronica tenderly, "I've found my happily ever after." He gave her another kiss, tender and sweet, which left no doubt in her mind that she was his happily ever after.

As their lips parted she sighed, "I found my Prince Charming," she smiled and she let him urge her back to her reclining position and she eased Bob back between her legs. She came to appreciate that this position was so nice and comforting, her man was here with her giving her love and a comfortable cushion. It was nice to masturbate with his smell right here and not on a t-shirt he left behind.

As her right hand guided Bob between her labia, her left hand went to her breast only to be gently slapped away by Josh. "Them are mine," he growled. "You take care of everything else."

"Yes sergeant Gravely." It was strange at first, when she started this little act she was putting on a show for Josh, but now he invited himself into her act of masturbating, something she's done quite well for herself by herself for a long period of time. There is an advantage to his being part of this however, although she is still working to get herself off, now she doesn't have to imagine anything, he's right here. Even though she was doing nothing differently, it was all completely different. It is now so intimate and has a true sense of sharing.

Now Bob slid inside her and it was such a new delicious feeling with him slide in and out and Josh being right here holding her close. Bob's vibrations were causing her pussy and clit to tingle, while at the same time she could feel Josh's cock pressing against her back, ready for her, all she has to do is say the word. With her left hand gently tracing damp circles around her clit and her right hand sliding Bob in and out of her moist depth, and both of Josh's hands pinching and pulling her nipples, she was in a sexual fantasy land, being gently lifted higher and higher as the warm tensions began to build.

And then he started whispering in her ear. That deep baritone voice with that panty wetting southern edge spoke gently to her, "You look so sexy and beautiful darlin', you truly are the woman of my dreams. Ah love you so deeply... you truly are my everything..." He gently stroked her left arm, naked but for the beautiful ring he put there just a few hours ago. It sparkled and flashed in the light of the bed side reading lamp. "I'm so happy knowing that from now on I have a true partner to stand by my side."

She wanted to tell him to stop, she was trying to cum, but she also wanted to hear those exact words go on forever. Her orgasm was building, but this one felt different, it wasn't just sex this time, it was something else entirely. All the love, all the respect, all the trust that this man has shown her and filled her heart to overflowing suddenly burst at the same time that the sexual tension she built with Bob crashed over her. It was so beautiful, so sweet, she came with a sigh rather than a shriek. Her carnal release was overshadowed by the waves of love she felt from and for her man. She rolled over, tears of love streaking from her eyes and she held him close. Softly she shuddered through the sweetest orgasm of her life.

Seeing the tears Josh immediately thought something was wrong, as all guys do, but Veronica was quick and as he started to ask what was wrong she silenced him with a finger to his lips. He gently brushed her hand aside and said, "Happy tears?" She responded by nodding and sighing in joy as his big strong arms wrapped around her.

Finally she pulled herself up and gave him a kiss. "That was so sweet, what gave you that idea?"

"Ah got lots of ideas, purty lady," he said forcing his voice an octave lower.

She snuggled closer, her hand gently touching and teasing Josh, working its way closer and closer to his cock. "Do you think we're moving too fast?"

"What do you mean darlin'?"

"You know, we only dated for a month and suddenly we're moved in together and getting married?" She began to slide her fingertips up and down the sensitive underside of his cock.

He smiled and said "We only been dating for a month, doesn't that year of wanting and watching count for anything? Even though we didn't go fishing 'n stuff like that, I always considered you my friend."

"Yeah," smiled Veronica, "I did too."

"Of course we're getting married, but maybe I ain't ready to stand in front of the preacher right now, an I don't think you're ready neither. And that's what engagements are about, they're not about getting married, they're about getting ourselves ready to get married, and letting the world know that we're off the market. Leave us alone so we can get our shit together. When I get to the point where I stop walking around the house in my underwear and when you start to understand that I'm not ignoring you, I'm ignoring the whole world, we'll be ready to set a date."

"That's what you think engagements are huh," Veronica smiled and leaned over and kissed his nipple eliciting a sudden gasp of pleasure from her man. "I like thinking about it that way."

"When we first met, and you stole my favorite Christmas cookie, I knew I was crazy mad in love with you, but that was infatuation. When we made love the first time, I knew you was the one."

"Was the one?" she laughed.

"It's a proper word with a proper southern twist to it." Josh ran his hand gently over the twin mounds of her ass causing her to shiver. "It wasn't the sex, if I came back from clearing the doorways and we just cuddled together and watched old movies I still would have known, and I'd a been the happiest man alive. It's because of the love. I knew you loved me because of how you looked at me and how we touched and how we talked. I knew for a long time."

"Then why didn't you respond to me when I had you in my office all those times?"

"Because I was in your office." Josh took a deep breath and prayed she'd understand. "I immediately fell in love with Nica, and over time I fell in love with Veronica, but she's a company officer and I'm a company peon." Veronica started to say something, but Josh said, "let me finish. I won't ever do anything to cost Veronica her job. When we got caught in the storm, that's when learned about Ronnie and after you and Julissa woke me up and I was able to tie Nica, Veronica, and Ronnie together, I knew I wanted to marry you."

"But what if I'm not ready?"

"I got time, I'll wait." He smiled enjoying the feel of her fingers exploring his cock. "If you have doubts, what made you say yes when I asked you tonight?"

"Mmmm... I think it was our first date," she said as she straddled Josh and lay atop him. She propped herself up on her elbows and looked in his eyes.

"What was it, me freaking out on the toboggan run? Or was it singing one of the most well known love songs on earth off key?"

"No," she gave him a really wicked grin, "It was everything. You delivered what you promised, you sang to me with four part harmony," she covered her mouth and laughed a little thinking of it, "But I think it was the way you tied me up and fucked me."

"Hey, you're the one who put the handcuffs on yourself. That was a wide open invitation." He arched his hips and tried to slide his cock inside of her, but she shifted her hips and his hard cock was enveloped by her labia and the sensitive underside of his cock was sliding against her clit.

"Yes it was an invitation, and you answered that invitation very nicely." Veronica began to rock her hips and her sex began to slide back and forth on Josh's throbbing pole. "God I love thisssssss," she hissed, then regaining her train of thought she said, "most men I've been with would have shrugged and taken the hand cuffs off because they didn't fit in with what they want to do. You actually cared about what I wanted to do."

"So it was a test?" Josh was hypnotized by the sight of Veronica breasts bobbing as she slid her pussy back and forth on his cock. She must like it, because he was soaked with her juices. "How did I do?"

"You indulged my wish, you cared about what I wanted, and that's all I wanted," her breath was coming in pants as was Josh's breath. She suddenly stopped and they both trembled in anticipation. "Most guys would have led me to the bedroom and had sex any way they wanted regardless of those cuffs. You gave up what you had in mind for me."

"I will give it all up for you," said Josh as he rolled her over and ended up on top. Veronica looked up at Josh and through the haze of sexual euphoria she realized he was serious. "All of it, the cabin, my jeep, my job. I'll quit just to make sure there's no conflict of interest in the office. And I'll do it if it makes us happy." His eyes softened as he leaned down and kissed her. "What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's an idea, I'll give you the moon."

Hearing those words from one of the most romantic scenes in American cinema caused Veronica's heart to beat stronger and her breath to catch in her throat. Finally she answered, "I just want your heart Effy." Her eyes were tearing up again.

"You had that the minute you stole my favorite cookie..." and with that he eased his cock into her wet, tight pussy, spreading her open and stretching her pussy around his thick cock.

"Ohhhh, Effy," she groaned as his cock began to stroke in and out of her pussy. She wrapped her arms around him and brought her legs up locking her ankles around his back, surrendering her body to his thrusts. "Fuck me Effy," she gasped as he began thrusting into her harder and harder.

He lifted up on his elbows and looked her in the eyes, "I need you Nica," he said as he kissed her gently in counterpoint to his now strong thrusts. "Now and forever." She crooned and returned his kiss. She's never heard him say that he needed her before and the feeling that gushed through her

"Oh God don't stop," Veronica gasped as her body shook with each pounding thrust. She gasped and cried out as her man fucked her with all of his heart. His girth gave her that feeling of being pried open, sometimes a bit scary, but now a welcomed sensation. As he drove in with each thrust his pelvis slammed into Veronica's clit sending a new shockwave of pleasure into her.

"I love you Ronnie," he groaned as he pushed himself up on his arms. Now he could look down at her and admire that trim, vibrant figure as he drove into her over and over. Her beautiful breasts wobbled with each slamming thrust of his cock. "My god you're so beautiful, he gasped as she began to spur him on with her heels.

"Cum with me," she gasped, "I'm going to cum, cum in me!" She reached up and began pinching his nipples, trying to urge him into cumming with her.

Josh was now out of his mind with passion, he slammed into her savagely, the sound of their groins slapping, the bedsprings creaking and their breaths panting filled the room. He came with a roar of "VERONICAAAAAAA!" as her own orgasm made her shudder and cry out. He dropped to his elbows spurting into her over and over as she squeezed him tight with arms, legs, and pussy, shuddering and gasping as their mutual pleasure coursed through their bodies and souls.

Slowly they returned to earth, panting and marveling at how a good, true love is such a beautiful aphrodisiac. As their breathing returned to normal Josh pulled the cover over them and lay on his back, Veronica cuddled close, her head on his shoulder and he turned and kissed her forehead. "We're going to do ok, I think. All four of us."

"Four of us?" she asked.

"Yeah. Veronica, Ronnie, Nica, and me."

Veronica lifted up on an elbow and gazed at Josh then smiled. He figured it out. No man has ever been able to do that before. She turned off the light then snuggled back down and said, "September thirtieth... I've always wanted an autumn wedding."