© 2023 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original, any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

I started writing this as something to do between weekends. Laid off from Comcast, disabled, and watching the world scroll past I looked for something to do. I looked far and wide for a hobby that I enjoyed which didn't cost a fortune and take up too much room, but I never found one that met those three simple requirements. Watching TV movies as the snow built up outside I groaned "I can write better than this." That is when my muse tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Quit bitching and do it."

On the We're a Wonderful Wife timeline this occurs around Chapter 10, and it occurs a full year before Stormwatch - A Blizzard in Buffalo

This is it, the genesis of a lot of things I wrote, but it is the first long story I ever tried, please be kind.

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Andi's Dream

Snowbound

It was a cold, dreary December day, gray, damp, slightly foggy, one of those days where it seems like everyone and everything is dreading an upcoming funeral. Yesterday was cold but sunny, the breeze scattered the dry leaves that danced across the street, the sound of their moving filled the air. Today was damp and foggy, the moisture gluing the leaves in place. A Jeep Gladiator pickup pulled up to Dr. Paul Jarecki's cabin on Trevett Road. It was a green truck, that odd color of olive green that made it look like a military vehicle, unless you've been in the military and know what kind of green they use. It even had decorative stencils to add to the military look, but the stencils miss that one thing that would make the stencils look authentic - "over spray." No, the green was a good green, the stencils were perfect and straight and at the same time the finish was buffed to a gloss. This was not a military vehicle and the driver was not military, not anymore. Josh Gravely stepped out of the truck, walked up to the barn shaped cabin and knocked on the door then entered without waiting for a response from inside. "Hey Doc," he said.

Dr. Jarecki looked up from the document he was reading on his laptop, the scent of smoke from his pipe and bacon from the morning's breakfast filled the air. It was a manly cabin filled with mementos of hunts and fishing expeditions, photographs of Paul Jarecki and friends including Josh holding up fish, or ducks, or deer. At one side of the cabin was a wood stove that warmed the cabin with a snap and crackle, the flames seen through the glass door moved in slow motion from the controlled intake of oxygen. A covered iron pot on top of the stove was slowly coming up to heat, there would be beef stew for dinner tonight. "Heading out?" Paul asked without looking up from the document on the screen. "I thought you had the rest of the week off."

"I did, but Eli called and asked me to come in, he thinks there's a storm coming and we have a new hospital to bring online," said Josh as he reached into Paul's fridge and grabbed a bottle of Genesee beer, pulled up a chair and began to drink. Josh worked at an up-and-coming data storage and networking company and owns the property across the street for recreation, but he lives in Orchard Park, about 25 miles away.

"That's the problem with you former military types, sergeant," said Paul, "they call, you haul. You should learn to relax." The doctor glanced over the top half of his glasses and wrote a note on a legal pad on his desk.

"Said the lieutenant colonel who is reviewing his patients records on his day off," said Josh. "Here's the key to my cabin, if there's a fire you know what to do," and he rose and hung the key ring in Paul's key rack.

"I know, save the rifles and clear your browser history."

Josh placed a fresh beer on Paul's desk for his friend then took a sip from his own beer and said, "Clear the browser history first. I don't have a barn full of hot chicks to keep me company."

"My hot chicks are keeping you in eggs. Besides, don't you have a secretary named McRooster or something like that to drool over?"

Josh sat back down. "It's von Köster and she's the bosses executive assistant. She is keeping this company together."

"I'm just saying," Paul took a sip from the beer that Josh set in front of him, "she's a neighbor. I could put in a good word for you."

"Thank you Doctor J but we are definitely in different leagues. She's pitching for the Yankees and I'm a benchwarmer for a pre-school T-ball league."

Paul took another drink then said, "Don't put yourself down like that. You'll start as center fielder for the local Ace Hardware T-ball team soon... with practice."

Josh rose and zipped up his jacket and moved toward the door, "See you Saturday?"

"Roger that, the Bills are playing the Broncos, it's going to be a good game." Paul then noticed that Josh was still holding the beer bottle as he opened the door and called out, "that's a nickel!" Josh groaned and finished the beer then set the empty bottle on the table so Paul could collect the deposit. "Do you think it's going to snow?"

Josh looked out of the door at the lead gray sky and shrugged. "Nah, probably not," he lied.

"Same here," Paul lied. "Bring some beers on Saturday, I'll put on some venison stew."

Josh backed out of Paul's driveway, then stopped to check his mailbox and double checked the gate on his property then headed to work. It was annoying to come in on a day off but he wanted this project to succeed so he headed in. The trip to his office in Orchard Park was about twenty minutes and by the time he got to the office the snow was starting to fly. It looked like this storm grew some teeth without warning anyone.

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Dr. Adrianna Roberts had flown from her home in Denver Colorado to Buffalo New York for a medical conference to be held at the South Boston Hospital, a new hospital in a growing rural community about 20 miles south of Buffalo. Andi, as she's most commonly called, didn't expect much from this conference, one of the speakers' name rang a bell, but her best friend in the world who now lives in the Buffalo area, Dr. Lucy Kosis, encouraged her to go. Other than the opportunity to come and visit Lucy, there was really no need to go. Looking at the speakers and the list of classes to be held in the seminar, it was all 'stuff' that she wrote many papers on in her past, some even before she got her fellowship. At least University hospital paid for the trip, Andi guessed they figured "What trouble could she get into in Buffalo?"

She brought the twins with her too; they were the joys of her life. Since Lucy left Denver and moved to Buffalo, the twins were the only joy left in Andi's life. They would be starting kindergarten next year so this was the last time she could bring them with her on a business trip, it was the first business trip she had been on since they were born. The last trip she took was a conference in Minneapolis not long before the twins were born.

They landed in Buffalo several days early to unwind at a highly praised B&B, then she had the week-long conference while the twins played with Aunt Lucy, then two weeks of actual vacation! They planned on one week spent skiing and tubing in the "snow belt" south of Buffalo, then Christmas week in Niagara Falls and Toronto. Her very best friend and former colleague Lucy would be there to guide them around the area, provide day care during the conference, and being a world class athlete Lucy would be her instructor for the important Nordic skills of tobogganing, inner tubing, and consuming wine by the fire.

Getting out of the airport and into a rental car was easy enough, in fact Buffalo International was one of the easiest airports to get out of that Andi had ever flown into. Soon they were in their rental car heading south, singing along with Christmas carols on Andi's iPhone which she paired with the radio on the rental car. And to the twins' delight it started to snow. She was extremely confident in her winter driving skills having been born and raised in Denver and she visited Grandma and Grandpa Olson in Bismarck, North Dakota almost annually - how hard could winter driving be in Buffalo?

Had they been listening to a local radio station they would have discovered that sports talk switched to weather talk and they were heading into the teeth of a Lake Effect blizzard, the kind of storm that Buffalo is famous for. The snow started in small, wet, widely spaced flakes as they passed New Era Stadium, the home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, but the further south they drove the heavier the snow fell. As they got closer to their target destination, Springville, not only was the snow flying in earnest there was thunder and lightning. "Thundersnow?" Andi asked no one in particular, "who has thundersnow?"

"Thundersnow! Thundersnow! Thundersnow!" the twins sang along with 'Let It Snow.'

Her windshield wipers could barely keep up with the onslaught, and to make matters worse, when she exited the 219 expressway, she ended up heading west into the countryside rather than east into town and the cozy Bed and Breakfast room waiting for them. She wanted to turn around but there was oncoming traffic which prevented a U turn, and there was no intersections visible.

As she drove, the four lane wide highway narrowed down to a two-lane paved country road, something she didn't notice happening due to the heavy snow. She almost discovered that the roads in this part of the world have very deep ditches due to the amount of rain and snowfall. She stopped and checked her GPS, her right tires perilously close to sliding into the ditch unbeknownst to her. She found her mistake quickly and decided to turn around at the next intersection which was 2 slow miles ahead.

When she finally reached the intersection, she nearly missed it. Snow was piling up fast, and even though it was still early in the afternoon the world grew very dark and took on a brownish grey hue from so much snow in the air. She misjudged how narrow the country road that she turned on to was, and without warning her slow-moving car slid sadly into the ditch on the side of the road.

Much of Andi's winter driving experience came from North Dakota visiting her grandparents, and not Denver. Denver is almost tropical compared to Bismarck North Dakota. Even in the mountains, the roads that Andi traveled on in Colorado were well groomed. In North Dakota she learned that when you go into the wide shallow ditches you drive on the frozen ground until you find a place to pull back on the road. Western New York is vastly different. She tried to continue with one set of wheels in the ditch until she found a field entry driveway, which is what she would do in North Dakota.

However, the steep sided deep ditches in New York are different than the wide shallow ditches of North Dakota and soon she was hopelessly stuck, far off of the main road, highway 39. She stopped the car and immediately it slid deeper into the ditch, tilting up to almost forty five degrees. The twins panicked, chattering away at the edge of terror as only 5-year-old twin girls can chatter but they did it in their own language. Andi dubbed it TwinBabble® and it took Andi several minutes to calm them into a form of quiet that would allow an emergency phone call.

"Nine one one, what is your emergency?" Andi gulped, she had informed scores of terrified patients to call 911, but she has never done it herself. Is there a protocol? What do I say? She realized that she must have been discussing this situation with herself in her head longer than she realized because the operator repeated "Nine one one, what is your emergency?"

"Oh, um, sorry. Hi." Now she felt stupid. Who says "Hi" to a 911 operator? "I'm Doctor Adrianna Roberts and I'm stuck in the snow." Now she felt even dumber, why would she think that throwing her title at the 911 operator could possibly improve the situation? Maybe if she rattled off her list of publications the tow truck would arrive faster?

"Where are you located? Take your time if you have to."

Andi decided that the 911 operator is an empath and realized how stupid she was making herself feel. "I'm not sure, we turned off the 219 expressway at Springville but headed west instead of east on Route 39, then I tried to turn around at an intersection and slid into the ditch."

The operator sounded calm. "I know that area pretty well, it's easy to get turned around in a snowstorm, so I'm just going to ask a few questions to help figure out where you are, OK? When you turned, was this the first intersection after 39 narrowed from four lane to two lane? Or did you go further?"

Andi suddenly realized that she did not notice if there were intersections before the road narrowed. No, wait - the only sign she saw was the sign indicating that the right lane had to merge left, so she wasn't completely ignorant of the world around her as she drove, but there was so much snow that she couldn't actually see the road narrow. "Yes, the first one after."

The 911 operator frowned to herself. If Doctor Roberts had turned at the next intersection a few miles further west on 39 she would be safe in the tiny village of Morton's Corners. "Did you turn left or right off of 39?" she asked Andi.

"Left, we turned left onto the side road."

"Ok, here's the good news. I know exactly where you are." Andi gulped, there is another shoe waiting to drop. The operator continued. "The bad news is that the Erie County Sheriff's office has put a driving ban in place, and they themselves are not on the road."

"Oh God, what do I do?" gasped Andi, "I have two five year old girls in here with me." She tried to keep the terror out of her voice but was fighting a losing battle.

"There is a farmhouse very close to you," said the operator, "can you see it?"

Andi tried looking out of the windows but she could see nothing, "No, I can't see past the hood of my car, my girls... I don't think I could walk them to the farmhouse in this snow."

"I'm going to reach out to the Town of Concord, which is where you are right now. They may have assets available."

Andi's heart sank, she verified her phone number with the 911 operator who gave her some tips on staying warm, then hung up. What do I do? She asked herself, lie to the girls that everything is going to be ok?

"Do we have to wait in the car or can Sandy and I go out and play in the snow?" asked the younger of the twins, Madeline. She was younger than Sandy by 2 minutes. When Andi told them that they couldn't go out in the snow, the moppets started fighting over who was sitting on who in the car that was leaning on a 45-degree angle causing Madeline to end up on Sandy's lap. Sandy decided that since she was older, she got to sit on her younger sister's lap.

"No you cannot go outside and play, the police will be calling me soon to tell me what we can do," Andi was exerting considerable self-control to keep herself from screaming, but it was a cute thought, wanting to go build a snowman in a blizzard to pass the time. Her cell phone rang as she was trying to break up the fight. "Doctor Roberts," she answered mechanically.

"Doctor Roberts, this is Sergeant Montgomery of the Town of Concord police department, how are you guys doing?"

"I think cabin fever is starting to set in with the twins, but we're doing ok."

"To be blunt, we do not have any units on the road, nor do we have any plows or snowmobiles in that area." Before Andi could audibly moan, he continued "I made a few calls, and a fellow who lives just up the road from where you're at agreed to head out to help you. It may take a little time so stay warm, keep the engine running and the lights on so he can see you, but you're going to have to keep the tail pipe clear to prevent carbon monoxide build up."

"Thank you so much Sergeant!" and Andi turned to tell the twins the good news, which only stoked their desire to play in the snow before it got dark, which appeared to be happening. They settled for a story, and Andi told them that she was going to dig the exhaust pipe clear of the snow first. She tried to open the door, but the car was at such a steep angle she couldn't open the door. As a pulmonologist she knew the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning far too intimately so she opened the window and climbed out by standing on the side of the center console and pulling herself out of the window. She cleared the exhaust pipe which unluckily was on the right side down in the snow filled ditch. After she dug the tail pipe clear with bare hands, then clambered back in the car, Sandy handed her the thick story book from which Andi had been reading stories to them since before they were born.

As Andi drew to the end of the second story that she was reading to the girls, Madeline's eyes shot open wide, "Sleigh Bells!" she gasped.

Sandy pulled herself up and started looking through the windows, "Sleigh bells! I hear them!"

Knowing how finely tuned the girl's ears can be, Andi turned off the radio and sure enough a putt-putt-putt and a jingle of tire chains could be heard approaching them. As the sound of the ching-ching-ching of tire chains grew nearer the girls cried "It's Santa Claus!"

Soon the dim glow of headlights could be seen, and suddenly a smallish grey and red tractor pulling a trailer full of hay bales appeared out of the swirling snow. As it pulled abreast of their car the driver hopped off the tractor and began inspecting the situation that they were in. He ducked down in the front and was below the hood for a long time, then he rose, walked up to the driver door, and gestured for her to lower the window.

"You're in that ditch good, ma'am." He said as Andi lowered the window. He was wearing a Buffalo Bills stocking cap and his face was covered with a Buffalo Bills scarf and his glasses were fogged so she couldn't even see his eyes. At least he was tall, but to someone as short as Andi, everyone is tall.

"Can you get us out?" she asked.

"Not with this tractor, I'd be afraid of ripping off your bumper or something like that. I have another one that works a whole lot smoother. And if I did pull you out, where would you go? Route 39 is impassable. All roads south of Orchard Park are closed. But you're more than welcome to wait this storm out in my cabin. It's warm and dry and supper's on."

"Supper!" chimed the twins from the back seat.

"I don't know..." Andi looked back at her girls, her babies. What if this was some pedophile? some rapist? Would it be better to wait out the storm right here in the car? The words "My Cabin" sent chills of terror through her heart. Hundreds of hours of slasher movies she watched as a teen flashed through her mind and the terror started to set in. "I don't know you," she said, "I can't... I can't risk the safety of my girls."

"That's something I truly understand, ma'am. The safety of the ones you love is of prime importance, there's nothing worse than seeing a loved one come to harm" He paused and looked around. It was snowing so heavily nothing was visible. All was gray and billowing snow. "Ma'am, this is a killer storm. Your car will be buried, you will run out of gas, when that happens you will freeze to death, when the snowplow comes it won't see you and it will crush you. I utterly understand your fear, but your babies back there, I can't... I don't want to see them die."

"I'm sure there will be someone as soon as the snow stops."

"No ma'am, there will not be someone along, this is a Lake Effect blizzard; it's expected to last until Saturday. Also, this collection of potholes is what Erie County calls a tertiary road, it's practically an empty road, there's two farms manned by some older folk, and there's a few cabins and camp sites, all empty except mine. The county won't come plow it until all the other roads in the county are plowed. If I had a brain in my head I wouldn't be up here on the lip of Zoar Valley in the first place, I don't know why I'm here, maybe God put me here for you, I don't know, but I can't stand by and do nothing." He looked around desperately as if trying to see a solution. "Look. If you won't let me help you, I have some MRE's on the wagon - military rations and they're sealed. They'll hold you over."

"That will be fine," said Andi now more terrified of the man than the storm for some reason.

"I'm going to turn this rig around first," he hopped back on the tractor, drove it and the wagon past her car to turn around.

"Where's he going mommeeeee?" whined Sandy.

"HE'S GOING..." Andi took a second to recover her temper, "he's going to go get us lunch."

Having swung the tractor and trailer around he pulled up alongside her car again. He just couldn't leave them like this, he had to try one last time to convince the headstrong but terrified woman to accept his offer of safe shelter. He stopped the tractor, set the brake, and stepped off the tractor to ask her one last time to get out of this storm but she refused to open the window again. He held up a large brown plastic envelope with the letters MRE on it, but she shook her head and refused to open the window. Now the girls were crying, calling for their mommy, and Andi couldn't move, she couldn't turn and comfort them, she was paralyzed with fear.

Andi watched as the man's knees sagged and he sank to the ground, kneeling, his arms crossed across his chest. She watched him, not knowing that he was praying fervently that God would do something, anything to change her mind. At worst he prayed for the storm to take him first, so he didn't have to watch those little girls die. Maybe his tractor parked in the road would warn the eventual plow to the hazard of the three trapped in the ditch. Andi watched the whole spectacle, cleaning the fog off her window. Was this man dying? Was he praying? Praying for what? Praying for a chance to get to her and her babies, she thought.

Just as she started to turn her back to the window her phone rang, it was 911.

"Doctor Roberts, this is Trisha at Erie County dispatch again. The Town of Concord police informed me that a neighbor in your area is coming to help, Doctor Paul Jarecki."

Andi was a bit shocked; she knew of a Dr. Jarecki, she thought that she may have even met him once. Isn't he a cardiologist and a specialist in pulmonary sleep disorders such as sleep apnea?

Oh no.

She looked at the catalog for the conference and she was scheduled to hear him speak at the symposium that she traveled so far to attend.

Oh crap.

"Just a second" she told 911, then leaned out of her window "Doctor Jarecki?" she called out. The man didn't move. Did he die kneeling in the road? "Do you know Doctor Jarecki?" she called out again.

Slowly, as if having been awakened he raised his snow covered head "That would be me."

The blood drained from Andi's face. She just insulted and probably angered a man that she traveled 2,000 miles to learn from, a man who left a nice warm cabin to come out in this cold, wet weather to save her and her girls... "Just checking." Did she really say that? Could she possibly have said something dumber? Oh God, she groaned inwardly.

Then she said to Trisha on the phone "He's here already with a tractor. He said he can't get us out of the ditch, so he's offered to take us to his cabin."

"You should go, you need to go, this storm is going to last for days. You do not want to be stuck in a car out in this weather."

"We don't have much of a choice" muttered Andi as she struggled to get her coat back on. "I'm worried for my girls; I don't know this man and..." her voice caught and she couldn't complete the sentence.

"I understand your fear Dr. Roberts, but I can vouch for Dr. Jarecki. For your own minds sake, I suggest you keep your phone charged and nearby and when there's a break in the weather we'll try to send an officer on a snowmobile to do a check on you."

Slowly her shaking hand reached out and remotely popped the trunk lid and the fellow seeing the trunk lid open rose and began to transfer their luggage from the car to his hay wagon.

"You really need to get to shelter Dr. Roberts, this is imperative. I'll have Town of Concord PD check on you as soon as we can." They said their goodbyes and Andi packed up her purse, told the girls to get their coats on, then tried to open the door. Seeing the door pop open, Dr. Jarecki held it open for her and held his hand out to help her.

She shunned the offered hand, struggled out of the car, and fell into the snow which was over a foot deeper than when she cleared the tail pipe. She finally got to her feet and was about to introduce herself, but she paused and took a look around. There was no wind, but the snow kept pouring down from the heavens, the flakes were huge and clustered together to make it look like they were being pelted with soft dishware. "What's that noise I hear?" Andi asked Paul. She mentally kicked herself again, the guy comes to help, and she asks him what that sound is.

He patted the tractor. "Plugs are fouled a bit, won't take much to clean them..."

"No, that hissing noise, it seems to be coming from everywhere."

"That's the sound that heavy snow makes when it lands. I take it you're not from around here." He lifted a giggling twin from the stranded car and held her over his head as he carried her to the hay wagon. She held her arms straight out simulating an airplane or maybe an angel and she touched down gently in the soft hay.

"Denver actually."

"The snow is drier and lighter up there," he said as he 'flew' another twin to the hay wagon. "Down here by the lakes it's pretty heavy, wet stuff. It's so heavy that it makes a noise when it lands, and in a heavy fall like this we hear it as a hiss." He helped Andi up into the hay wagon where the twins had already started building a nest in the hay. "That's the idea, you three cuddle up close and cover yourselves with hay, that'll keep you warm." Once they were all settled, he climbed up onto the tractor seat, cracked open the throttle and they started moving.

The ching-ching-ching-ching sound of the tire chains and the swirling snowflakes got the twins in a festive mood, and they began singing 'Jingle Bells' at the top of their lungs. The snow was piling up fast, it was almost up to the bottom of the hay wagon, but the tractor swam through it without effort. Andi peered ahead into the pool of swirling snow highlighted by the tractor's headlight and saw that the tire tracks laid down earlier as Paul headed to her rescue were almost filled in completely by new snow.

As they puttered along occasionally Andi would see a huge, gnarled tree leaning at them from the left, and once through the snow to the right she thought she saw a small red house, or maybe it was a shed, it was lost in a whirl of snow in a moment. She tried to be cheery to encourage the girls, but they didn't need any encouragement, this was their first hayride and they loved it! As for Andi, she felt as if she were heading for her doom. Eventually Andi was able to change the Twins Choir from "Jingle Bells" to "Over the River and Through the Woods" but when they got to "to grandmother's house we go" Andi wondered if she'd ever see her Nana again.

After what only seemed like forever, they swung off the road onto a field access driveway and they followed a path that had been plowed clear earlier. Paul shouted over the sound of the tractor that this was his driveway. The driveway seemed to be a longer drive than the road they were on to Andi but eventually she saw some Christmas lights appear ahead, and when they drew close, she saw that there were three barns, two were small hip roof barns situated very close together, both clearly modified for habitation rather than storage. One small barn had a covered patio on the front with windows overlooking the patio and a split Dutch door for access. The small barn immediately to its right only had a few windows and standard entry doors, no big barn doors. The two small barns were connected by an enclosed walkway. The third barn was huge and visibly much older; it sat further off to the side. Flood lights on all three barns illuminated the entrances.

Paul stopped the tractor at the patio, set the brake and hopped off, then helped Andi and the twins and their luggage from the trailer and ushered them through the Dutch door into the small barn. They stomped the snow off their shoes, shrugged off their coats and looked around. It was warm and inviting inside, the walls were paneled with rough cut wood and decorated with antique tools, old pictures, and on the long wall a fire hissed and crackled in a wood stove. In fact, the only light in the barn was from the fire and the dim grey light that streamed reluctantly through the windows.

"Go warm up by the fire but don't touch, that stove gets pretty warm. And don't worry none about Wonka, he won't bite."

Andi brought up all the force her four-foot nine-inch frame could manage. "Doctor Jarecki, if you actually are Doctor Jarecki, I am going to protect these girls with everything I have, because they're all I have..."

He took off his glasses and she could see his blue eyes, such a familiar blue. "Ma'am, I fully understand, just let me get your bags off the hay wagon and I'll be out of your hair. Here's my cell number if you have any questions. Just be nice to my cabin, it's not all I have, but I like it very much." And with that he set down her bags inside the cabin door, handed her his business card which he pulled from his wallet, then got on the tractor and putted off into the storm.

Andi stepped into the cabin and looked around, it was very dark, except for the firelight flickering from the glass door of the very modern but very old fashion looking wood stove that gave the only light other than the light coming through the windows from the fading daylight and the outdoors Christmas lights.

The twins were fascinated by the living area. The cabin was a small barn converted into a comfy retreat. It was one large room that made no attempt to hide its support structure of the upper floor. There were exposed floor joists, heavy cross beams, and upright support columns and all were decorated with evergreen boughs and red ribbons. The walls were paneled with rough cut lumber set horizontally. A large comfortable couch sat facing the wood stove, a table and chairs sat by the windows at the front of the room, and bookshelves lining the wall on the back of the room. A staircase at the back of the room led to the loft. Everywhere there were pine boughs and bright red ribbons decorating the room. Whoever Doctor Paul Jarecki is, thought Andi, he's got an interesting cabin.

She used the flashlight feature of her phone to search the cabin for a light switch and she found that the walls were covered with photographs and memorabilia. She checked out the framed certificates, graduated from State University of New York at Erie - Phi Theta Kappa with an Associates in English, graduated from Buffalo State University - Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science, got his medical degree from State University of New York at Buffalo, an osteopath. She was going to look at his residency certificate but got distracted by more photographs.

She found a photographs of holidays and parties going back generations, a photo of a man in a set of military dress blues, chest covered with badges and ribbons, standing next to a smiling redheaded woman dressed like a fighter pilot. "Must have been a memorable Halloween," she thought. Pictures of men and women fishing in a small lake and a large stream, random antique tools, the occasional lure, and other fishing equipment, antique looking snowshoes... Andi decided that a woman's touch had never made its way to this cabin.

One of the pictures she spotted looked familiar... awfully familiar. It was of the attendees of a conference gathered together in a group photo, dressed nicely for the occasion. They were packed together in a tight group to get in the frame. Many people were wearing false smiles, those smiles that a doctor will wear when telling patients that they'll be alright, when the doctor knows that their patient probably won't follow their instructions. And there, in the front row, was a very visibly pregnant Doctor Adrianna Roberts. "He's got a picture of me?" she gasped aloud, which caused the twins to come running.

"Where? Where?"

"Let me see!"

She remembered that horrible night in Minneapolis, it was so frigid, she was lucky to get a hotel room in the hotel where the conference was being held, she didn't want to walk on icy sidewalks in her out of balance pregnancy. Everyone gathered for a soiree in the hotel ballroom on the last night of the conference and they had a group photo taken. Being the shortest person there she was pushed to the front of the group. The photo showed a large group of doctors and nurses, professional people in their suits and dresses and she was there, very pregnant standing in front of the group, and behind her a tall man with incredibly blue eyes. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach as she did on that night, and so very, very stupid. "I'm such a yutz," she said. She found his card on the table where she dropped it, picked it up and dialed his number...

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Dr. Paul Jarecki had spent a long time desperately trying to light a kerosene heater in the barn, but even if it did successfully light the chances of it keeping him warm were slim because he had only a few ounces of kerosene remaining. He even tried finding a comfortable position in the heated chicken coop and try to absorb some of their warmth, but the smell got to him quickly.

He found a couple of old blankets and wrapped himself with it and lay back in the hay wagon, at least the babies are safe he thought. Then with a prayer of thanksgiving he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. He had almost drifted off when a jingling "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" broke his slumber, it was his phone ringing with an unfamiliar number, the partial ID gave the location of Denver CO. With shivering hands, he picked up his ringing phone, it was Andi.

The cabin smelled of wood, smoke, evergreens, and rich beef stew, heady masculine smells that were getting to Andi. "Doctor Jarecki, we... I may have acted hastily, I should be thankful, but when it comes to my girls..." Andi sniffed the air, the scent of the hanging herbs and evergreen boughs and beef stew was overwhelming. "Please come here, maybe we could talk about what we are going to do over dinner."

It seemed to Paul that it took an hour to make it from the barn to the cabin, the wind had really picked up and the snow was so heavy he could barely see and he walked the long yards on Autopilot. When finally making it to the door he paused. He was freezing, his body shook from tremors, he clearly didn't dress warm enough when he rushed out to help whomever the Concord township police could not reach. He finally opened the door and walked in his cabin he could almost taste the fear that overwhelmed the small woman inside.

With trembling hands, he removed his jacket. He heard a tiny shuddering voice in the darkness. "Doctor Jarecki? I'm Doctor Adrianna Roberts." In the gloom of the cabin, he saw her and saw the fear on her face, and he also saw the tiny faces peering out from behind her.

The light switches Andi couldn't find were behind jackets hanging from pegs near the door. Paul flipped a switch, and the cabin became illuminated by over a dozen electric candles that gently flickered making the cabin look even more cozy. A small Christmas tree in the back corner lit up illuminating a small library.

"This is so cool!" Squealed the twins in unison as they resumed their exploration. They suddenly stopped short as they grew near the wood stove, a large brown object laying on the couch in front of the stove slowly came to life. With a whine it unfolded, stretched, and eased down onto the floor.

"That's my buddy Wonka, he's the worst guard dog on earth."

"Wonka?" asked the girls as the chocolate lab, bleary eyed from his nap, sniffed them, made a quick decision of approval, and began to wag his tail. The twins never had a dog in their lives, but they got over any trepidation in a microsecond and began petting and hugging the dog whose tail wagged faster with every coo and hug. Dr. Jarecki introduced his dog as "Not only the world's worst watch dog, but the sweetest friend a man could have."

Seeing that the dog was tolerating the attention, Andi let the girls fawn and dote over the overjoyed Wonka. The twins resumed their exploration and it was then that Andi noticed that the twins were clearly looking for something important as Wonka followed them in their search.

"What are you two looking for?" Andi gently demanded.

"The bathroom," said Sandy.

"If he doesn't have one," continued Madeline, "then he's probably..."

"A zombie!" the girls said together, eyes wide.

"A zombie?" asked Andi incredulously.

"Everyone knows zombies don't poop!" intoned Sandy with all the authority a five-year-old can muster.

"Dixie's brother Melvin told us so at day care, it's true," added Madeline whom Andi thought was much too involved with Dixie's brother Melvin.

"I hate to tell you this," intoned Andi, "but this is a cabin way out in the country. The bathroom is probably outside."

The twins stared at their mother in wide eyed shock and horror at the thought of a toilet sitting outdoors. Paul smiled seeing the shocked looks on the girls faces. He pulled off his boots then strode over to the stove where he set his boots to warm and hung his scarf and cap on a hook over the stove to dry and gave Wonka a pat on the head.

"I think Dixie's brother Melvin is right about zombies," said Doctor Jarecki. "Gastroenterologists all over the world complain about postmortem constipation in their zombie patients."

"See?" Sandy struck a defiant pose as she glared at her mother.

"I still gotta go potty and it's cold outside," wailed Madeline.

The whole time Paul passed Adrianna's name over and over in his head, her face is familiar but tonight he's only seen her scowl, which is not a good look for her, but... His mind clicked, it was in Minneapolis when he met a young doctor, flush with the joy of carrying not one but two tiny lives in her womb, the hair is different, but this has to be the same woman.

Dr. Jarecki stood over a foot and a half taller than Andi with broad shoulders and hands that looked more like a mechanic than a cardiologist. He appeared to be maybe 50, maybe older? Andi was immediately taken with his good looks that were edged by years of concern mixed with the love of the outdoors. Most importantly he did not appear to be threatening, Andi had a lot of experience with threatening and was always on the outlook. "We were discussing the potential of using external plumbing," answered Andi.

"There is that potential, and those facilities exist, but if you're not the adventurous type, I suggest using the indoor facilities." Paul then turned so Andi could see his face better. "It's good to see you again Doctor Roberts, although the weather isn't much better than at our last meeting."

Andi smiled and her tense shoulders sagged in relief. Now that she could see his face, she recognized him more fully, but he looked so much younger back then. It's the beard, he didn't have a beard back then. She ignored the internal voice but still remembered his smile and those blue eyes during the brief conversation they had so long ago. She told him she was pregnant with the twins at the time, and he seemed delighted. "Oh yeah, it was what - thirty below?" He's got a nice smile, the voice in her head pointed out.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," smiled Paul, "we seem to influence the weather. Anyhow, this is it. I built this "garden barn" about 15 years ago when I bought this land. Not much has changed except this area over here is now an office away from office, it used to be a camp style kitchen. A few years back I got tired of going outside to use the facilities and tired of cooking over a Coleman stove, so I built the second garden barn and added all the modern conveniences including a modern-ish septic system." He let them through the walkway into the other cabin which contained a modern kitchen, laundry, toilet, shower, and sauna. As Madeline shut herself in the water closet Paul explained "The shower is Navy style: pull the chain to wet down, then let go, lather up, then pull it again to rinse off."

"That's weird," commented Sandy.

"Once upon a time I used to have to haul water up here by truck, then pump it into storage drums," explained Paul, "so I set the shower up like that to save water. Now I have a freshwater spring that fills an underground cistern, but it takes a long time to refill the cistern, so we still take Navy showers."

"What's a cistern?" asked Madeline as she exited the water closet and Sandy took her place. Paul realized he had to start the explanation all over again.

As they stepped back into the kitchen area Paul called out "Who wants to eat?"

The twin's eyes grew large as dinner plates, they had been traveling all day and had only grabbed snacks on the go as Andi expected a large meal when they reached their room. "I do! I do!" they both shouted. Collecting bowls, glasses, and utensils they all trooped back to the first cabin. Paul spread the wings on the small dining table to make room for guests and set out the bowls and spoons, then carried the iron pot from the wood stove to the table, opened the lid and the smell of beef stew filled the room and overwhelmed their senses.

"That smells incredible!" gasped Andi as she leaned over the pot and took a deep whiff of the savory broth. When she looked up, she saw that Paul had gone back to the "modern" cabin and brought back a loaf of fresh baked bread and a carafe of ice-cold spring water to the table. "It's like you were expecting us," she smiled.

"To be honest, I was expecting this storm," he said. "I love watching a snowstorm when I know I'm going to be safe and warm. I had planned to sit by the fire and read and listen to Christmas music. I have elderly neighbors east and west that might need help, I can reach them with a tractor or a sled. So, I cooked this stew up to have leftovers to eat throughout the weekend. Stew is an old tradition with my family; a big pot of stew to last us through the days that we're shut in or when the paychecks are far apart."

"I hate to ruin your planned menu for the week, but this smells delicious!" said Andi as Paul handed out steaming bowls of the stew. The table was butted up with one end against the windows facing out on the front patio, the twins sat side by side facing the windows while Andi and Paul sat at opposite sides facing each other. The sound of spoons clanking on bowl filled the cabin and drown out Wonka's snoring while outside the Christmas lights strung on the patio roof illuminated the falling snow. In the background a seasonal piano adagio was played on an unseen stereo.

At first the twins eyed their bread suspiciously, it looked odd compared to the bread they are used to, each slice was so thick, and the crust was so crunchy. Andi buttered their slices and finally Madeline took a bite. Her eyes rolled in pleasure and she said something to Sandy that Paul didn't understand, but it may have been encouragement, because Sandy took a bite, and her reaction was similar to Madeline's. "It's so good!" she cried.

Madeline nodded, "It has a flavor," she said around a mouthful.

"Bread don't have a flavor," said Sandy in a very matter of fact tone of voice, "it just holds the peanut butter."

"But this is good!" squeaked Madeline, "Mommy, can you get this bread?"

Andi sputtered and looked for the right words to answer when Paul said, "I make this bread myself, I made it this morning."

Sandy was incredulous. "You can make bread?"

"Yes, it's easy. I have a machine to help me. Would you like to help make bread tomorrow?" and Paul added quickly "if it's ok with your mother."

"Can we momma? Can we? Can we?" begged the twins in a well-rehearsed chorus.

Andi sighed, she was still distrustful of a man that for all intents and purposes just met. "Only if you eat all of your dinner, and I'll be there to make sure you don't make Dr. Jarecki crazy." Paul knew that she added that last statement was not to be protective of Paul, but to protect her girls from Paul, if needed. A sentiment that Paul understood and admired.

"Done deal," said Paul. "Last one to the bottom of their bowl helps me do dishes."

With that the twins tore into their stew with gusto. The famished family ate their fill while they watched the snow accumulate. Finally, as the twins mopped their bowls clean with bits of bread Andi asked "So what are the sleeping arrangements?

"The loft upstairs is a 'bunkhouse' of sorts and it's all yours, as long as you're here and as long as you want," Paul told Andi. "There's a full bed and four cots and several empty dressers and lockers for your stuff, and there's dividing curtains if you want a little privacy. My clothes are in a closet up there, but I'll grab what I need and bring it down here."

"Where are you going to sleep?" asked Andi, "I've already kicked you out of your own home, I don't want to kick a man out of his own bed but thank you very much for the offer."

"It's not a bother. I'll sleep on the couch, it opens to a full bed if I want to do that, and it's where I always sleep on wintry nights so I can keep an eye on the fire and make sure it's burning through the night. Believe me, you'll be toasty warm up there."

"Do you live here?" asked Madeline as she gazed at the dried herbs and other objects hanging from the beams.

"Kind of. I have a place in town which isn't much fun when you're alone, I use it to entertain friends and clients, but I spend what feels like most of my off time here. Feel free to use the sauna all you want."

The twins looked perplexed and demanded to know what a sauna was, and Paul just uttered "Uff da!" which caused Andi to laugh. Uff da is a Norwegian expression like "oh shit" and just as useful. She picked it up from her grandparents in North Dakota. Hearing Paul use it in just the correct tone of voice caused her to laugh, her first laughter in an exceptionally long time she realized. "A sauna is a small room which gets very hot, your great Grandpa Olson has one, and I'll teach you girls later."

Paul smiled. "Your grandpa - Olson? For real? Is his first name Ole?"

"No, but he likes to be called Ole," said Andi, "he didn't think his real name sounded Norwegian enough."

"What was it, Dave? Robert?" asked Paul.

"Knute."

Paul snorted through his nose at the thought of 'Knute Olson' not being Norwegian enough and chuckled while the twins kept asking "What's so funny?"

"You know Uff Da?" asked Andi.

"Ja shooore, I mean, I should say so, I was stationed at Minot AFB for several years."

"Why not, Minot," said Andi.

"Freezin's the reason," finished Paul. "I have been to the Norsk Hostefest several times and sampled the lutefisk, and the state fair every year I was there."

"We go to the state fair every year, we take Nana and Oompa Ole ever year, right girls?"

"Pineapple whip!" cried Sandy.

"Kettle corn!" cried Madeline.

"You've surely been there," said Paul. "I'm planning to go up there in the spring, a friend of mine is getting promoted to commander of the Missile Wing at Minot, she kind of demanded that I be there."

"She?" Andi looked a little surprised, then lifted her glass, "here's a toast to my sisters in the military!"

Paul lifted his glass too, "to the best rocketeer in the Air Force!"

They touched glasses and Andi took a sip, "This water is so good! In Denver it would be three, maybe four dollars a liter, what does it go for down here?"

"Not much," said Paul looking a little embarrassed. "It's my tap water. I'm tapped into a natural spring."

"Oh my gosh, no wonder why Lucy moved here! This must make incredible tea!"

"That can be arranged," said Paul with a smile.

As they carried their dishes into the kitchen, the twins began to get antsy. "Can we get our tablets?" asked Sandy, "We want to watch YouTube."

"YoooTooob!" added Madeline.

Before Andi could say anything, Paul interjected, "I need to tell you this, we don't have a lot of rules here, but here's my biggest rule - no screens at the table or after sundown, that means phones and tablets. Is that ok Mama?"

Andi grinned, "That's great! They watch too much YouTube to begin with."

Paul continued. "The TV I like shut off, only exception is if there's a special show or a game on." The twins bristled in anger, they love watching YouTube Kids, but Paul pointed out "There are shelves full of books and board games, records and audio books, I even have a guitar and a keyboard and if you're good, an autoharp if anyone wants to play for us."

"Awwww not fair! Why can you watch a game, but I can't play one on my tablet?" whined Sandy.

It probably wasn't much use to tell a child that Buffalo Bills football, no matter how bad, is just as much a part of life in Western New York as chicken wings, Beef on Weck, or complaining about the Buffalo Sabres. "Tell you what, just to make it fair, if there's a game on, I'll let you watch it with me." Which satisfied the 5-year-old for about 4 seconds, then Sandy turned to Andi: "Maaaaa!"

"Ok," said Paul, "If there's a game on, I'll make chicken wings."

"Deal!" shouted Madeline before her sister could complain more.

Paul gazed at the Roberts family in his cabin and said a prayer of thanks for having had the chance to share his meal with such a beautiful group. Andi is a tiny woman, well under five feet, dark blond hair to her shoulders, sparkling brown eyes that light up when she smiles, a small pixie nose and a generous mouth with rich lips that need no lip gloss. Her girls are tiny too, reflections of their mother with long silvery blond hair and mischief in their eyes, but they obeyed their mom and helped clear the table after dinner.

The table was cleared in record time, leftovers placed in the refrigerator, and dishes washed and put away by Doctors Paul and Andi. "You have a lot of dishes," said Andi as she tried to reach the second shelf of the cabinet.

Paul took the dish from her and placed it in the proper place with ease. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Well, it's just you up here, but you have tons of dishes. I would figure you'd have maybe a place setting for four."

Paul smiled. "But it's not just me up here all the time. Josh across the street is in and out constantly with fish and game, my brother and his wife are here constantly, the farmers on either side of me stop by quite often and we make a potluck out of it, and I have friends in Florida who come up in the summer and stay here."

While they walked back into the main room, the girls hauled their small suitcases and carry-on backpacks upstairs and argued over who gets which cot. As the arguing continued, Paul put his cold weather gear back on.

"I'm going to go clear the driveway again," he said and hit a few switches on the wall which turned on some flood lights outside, "you gotta keep up with these storms or you'll end up stuck good." The snow was piling up fast out there.

"Thank you so much for everything," said Andi as she looked into his eyes, trying to read them.

"It's not a problem, I just hope you enjoy my company" he said as he stepped out the door.

"I'm starting to," she said to the air in his wake.

For the next hour Andi, Sandy, and Madeline unpacked some of their clothes into the foot lockers at the end of their beds and made up the beds from the linen and blankets that they found in a standing locker. The pillows were feather pillows, and Madeline discovered you could pluck the feathers out of the pillows and started surreptitiously decorating Sandy's hair with feathers. Then it was off to see what a sauna is.

Andi locked the cabin doors and led the girls to the sauna in the newer cabin, and figuring out the instructions, she turned on the sauna, set to a lower setting than Grandpa Knute ever used, then she and the girls climbed in to relax in the heat. Madeline liked the steam and Sandy liked the dry heat, which was typical of the two, identical to a point, then they diverge on wild tangents. And the girls couldn't decide if they liked the idea of cloying heat, but Andi convinced them that it feels good after playing in the snow. The twins decided to try playing in the snow and then trying out the sauna later.

After their brief sauna, Andi unlocked the cabin door and while the girls who were still grumbling against the ban on tablets fell back on coloring books, she busied herself looking at the collection of medical publications that were shelved in the back corner. She looked over the tomes, many of whom she depended upon on a regular basis. She then looked at his computer workstation. The stacks of folders and documents showed her that Paul works from this corner of the cabin quite often. All through the evening the fire kept them warm and the sound of the tractor clearing and scraping the driveway reminded them of the storm outside.

"Ok girls, it's getting late, jammie time," Andi called, and the girls, still grumbling about the lack of YouTube Kids, put their crayons and coloring books away.

As they headed back upstairs to get their pajamas on, Andi looked out the window and saw that Paul was clearing the snow from in front of the cabin with a small, modern looking, orange tractor. This one was smaller than the tractor he rescued them with, it had a roll bar, numerous floodlights front and back, and it had a pair of arms up front that could be attached to a bucket, which was sitting nearby. The big difference was the sound, the gray tractor sounded more like a tractor to Andi, this one sounds like construction equipment. Right now, Paul had a snowplow attachment connected to the arms and attached behind the tractor he had mounted a drag plow that he dragged when needed. He had cleared a large area in front of the cabins and barn building up huge piles of snow and had finished clearing the long drive that curved off to her left into the dark. Rising voices from the loft drew Andi away from the windows and to her daughters and Wonka.

Paul put the Kubota tractor away in the barn after placing the bucket and plow attachments in their proper locations, closed the big barn doors, and trudged through the swirling snow back to the cabin. He was going to have to plow again first thing in the morning to keep ahead of this storm. After doffing his boots and parka and hanging his hat, scarf, and gloves over the stove Paul headed to the sauna to relieve his aching back in the heat. As usual he followed his sauna with a step outdoors into the cold. The feeling of snow falling on a hot body after a sauna was indescribable other than "utterly refreshing."

After that, his routine was almost identical to before the Roberts family arrived. He put on tea and while the tea seeped he checked his email (nothing but colleagues describing the storm from their different locations), then he stoked the fire in the stove, put on some quiet music, then poured himself a cup of tea and sat on the couch reviewing patient files that were emailed to him while he was rescuing Andi.

At the thought of Andi his concentration on the patient records was broken and he thought of her smile, her voice, the calm manner she handled this whole crazy situation once she got over her initial fear of him. He wondered what her body was like, but she kept it well hidden under loose sweaters and jackets so far. He allowed himself to wallow in this reverie then with a sigh he finished up reviewing the records, made a few notations for the morning, and placed them on the end table and turned out the reading lamp. The cabin was now only illuminated by the fire in the stove, the Christmas lights outside hanging from the patio roof, and a few electric candles he kept on in case one of his visitors had to navigate to the toilet.

Out of the gentle darkness Andi appeared in Paul's oversized grey robe, a worn flannel nightgown, gray sweatpants, and a bright pink pair of fuzzy slippers. "May I?" she asked as she reached for the tea pot that was on the wood stove and poured herself a cup.

"Feel free," said Paul with a smile after she set the tea pot back down.

Andi sat down on the other end of the couch, curled her legs up underneath her, and pulled the end of Paul's blanket over her lap. She took a sip of the tea and closed her eyes and sighed in pleasure. "Now this is Tea!"

"This isn't a girly tea," Paul said, "it's a good strong black tea that you can only get from England. I pick it up at the Niagara Falls Air Force Base commissary."

Andi smiled and sipped again. "Man's tea," she said with a fake growl between sips, "this would make great iced tea."

"Yes ma'am, black as Coca-Cola." Paul gestured to the stairs. "Can't sleep?"

"I was evicted from the full-size bed. The girls couldn't decide who gets to sleep with Wonka, so they took over my bed and Wonka joined them."

Paul just noticed that Wonka's usual spot in front of the stove was empty. "That traitor..." he muttered, "... man's best friend my foot."

Andi continued. "I also want to know what you want."

"What I want? The only thing I really want at the moment is to get the dump scoop on my Ford tractor fixed. I got everything I need and more."

"What do you want from me... like in exchange for this hospitality."

Paul picked his words carefully, he had to be honest, he knew instinctively that she would see through a lie, but if she misunderstood his words she might pack up and lead her girls out into the cold. "I'm sitting here in the firelight sipping tea with the most beautiful, most intelligent woman I've ever had the pleasure to meet. What I want is this perfect moment to go on forever."

"Wouldn't you want more?"

"Well of course, I'm a guy, there's all kinds of things I want, but I don't take what isn't freely given, not sex, not a kiss, not a hug."

Andi clearly relaxed "Can I check your references?"

"There's Wonka..."

"He's a guy too," Andi nervously smiled and sipped her tea. "It's just... I um..."

"No," said Paul, "you don't have to explain. At our age, ok my age, we all have scars and baggage..."

Andi continued anyhow. "My ex, he was... abusive... and every damn thing was a quid pro quo. If I wanted to change the curtains, I had to hit my knees..." she sniffed and studied her tea. "Don't get me wrong, I like sex, I like giving and receiving, but when... when you are forced to... I..." she shuddered, held back the tears and the rage. "I don't like having my arm twisted by a bully. Thank God he's gone. Thank God he never saw the girls."

Andi took another sip of tea, then continued. "Remember when we met in Minneapolis... you and me? While we were posing for that group photo, he was back in the hotel room with a cocktail waitress he picked up at the hotel bar." A tissue appeared from the sleeve of the robe. "When I got back to our room he was gone. He left a note, and, in the end, he screwed me in divorce court... never marry a lawyer."

What can you say when a person opens to you like that? "I'm sorry you had to go through that," was all Paul could think of to say.

"Whenever an ambulance goes by, I look to see if he's behind it," she tried to smile. There was a question she needed to ask, but for some reason she was terrified to ask it, but with a deep sigh she plowed ahead and asked, "Is there a Mrs. Jarecki?"

"No," said Paul sadly. "Used to be, but she's not with us anymore." He held up his left hand to show that there was no wedding band, nor was there a shadow of one.

"Do you mind if I ask?"

"No, I guess not. We were in the Air Force, married nearly 7 years. She was a pilot, fighter pilot, flew the F-15, I was flight surgeon for another unit on base."

Andi remembered the photo on Paul's desk in the corner, a photo of a younger Paul in dress blues standing next to a lovely, statuesque redhead in a flight suit. They looked so happy. That must have been her. She began to kick herself for thinking it was Halloween costumes. "Go on."

"It was a beautiful summer morning, June 18^th, she was on a 90-day temporary duty assignment to Kunsan Korea and nearing the end of her rotation. Only one more week and she would come home. She had the first mission of the morning, flying flight lead. God how she loved that job. She'd come back from a flight lead mission so excited..." He sniffed and moved on. "That morning Melony, my wife, taxied onto the runway and her flight elements, the three other planes, formed up around her. She got clearance to take off, but instead of releasing the brakes and taking off, her aircraft just shut down. They tried raising her on the radio, but she didn't answer, so her wingman moved forward for a better look and saw her slumped forward in the cockpit and he called the tower and declared a ground emergency. It turned out she had a myocardial infarction right there on the runway, her last act was to shut down her plane and set the brakes... the flight surgeon's wife dying of a heart attack in an F-15..." Paul went silent.

The fire snapped occasionally, and the Christmas music continued to play, occasionally a giggle could be heard from upstairs, but Paul remained silent. "Oh my God," gasped Andi quietly. "What did you do?"

After a deep breath Paul said, "I retired. I was no good to Uncle Sam anymore. I took the insurance money and bought this chunk of land, went back to school at the University at Buffalo and got a fellowship in pulmonology, then took some law classes. Now I'm a consultant to Springville and to South Boston hospitals, trying to open up a sleep study clinic at the local VA facility."

Andi opened her arms up wide "Come here, you need this."

He stopped her. "That's not the whole story, I think you should know the rest of the story."

"What happened?"

"I told you that Melony died of a heart attack, I didn't tell you the cause." It suddenly became hard to swallow. Tears filled his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. "Because she died in the cockpit of a combat aircraft there was an autopsy. She was on day 83 of a 90-day temporary duty assignment." He clearly didn't want to continue, and Andi refrained from urging the words out of him, she wrapped her arms around his arm and held on tight. Eventually he swallowed hard and spoke; "She died of a myocardial infarction caused by an allergic reaction to a large dose of levonorgestrel."

The words spun through Andi's head; it actually took her a second to recall that in extreme cases levonorgestrel will cause a heart attack but...

"We had our future mapped out, I was an up-and-coming flight surgeon, she was a fighter jock being groomed for leadership. There was no room for children in our future, so we were INCREDIBLY careful because she was allergic to birth control pills."

"Oh, dear God," said Andi sadly. The active ingredient in birth control pills is levonorgestrel, a synthetic version of the hormone progestin and if you're allergic to birth control pills, that component is probably what you are allergic to. If she was allergic to birth control pills and had an allergic reaction to 'a large dose of levonorgestrel' it means she took a "morning after pill" not realizing that "Plan B" is nothing but a large dose of levonorgestrel. She was obviously screwing around behind Paul's back and was afraid of being pregnant.

People can be such bastards to each other.

"I'm sure there's more to your story that you're not ready to tell yet," said Paul softly, and at that Andi shrugged her shoulders and nodded a bit. "Me too, so maybe we're not so different... but I'll take that hug now, if it's still available."

They moved closer and Andi leaned her head on Paul's shoulder and slowly they began to relish the warmth of another human being, a warmth they both had both missed for so long. They sat like that for a long time, listening to soft classical guitar renditions of Christmas hymns on Paul's stereo and watching the flames dance in the wood stove.

The fire burned down so Paul got up and added new wood to the fire that he got from behind a small door just to the left of the stove. He grabbed the tea pot and topped off their cups, then he sat back down on the couch and was overjoyed when Andi leaned back against him.

"You have a lot of Christmas music," she said softly. She didn't really care about the music, she just wanted to hear his voice again. It was so nice to hear the voice of a man that wasn't hitting on her, or hitting her, or droning on and on about work, or gasping for breath, or...

"I love Christmas, and I love Christmas music. I love classical chorale to Manheim Steamroller, country to opera. What about you? What music do you love?"

"I don't know. It depends on my mood, right now what you are playing is perfect for the moment," she paused for a moment, right now her life was dominated by music targeted to five-year-olds. "I guess... ummm... yacht rock? Is that what you call it?"

"That's it, gentle, melodic, soft rock. I don't have a yacht, but my brother and I have a sailboat. Next time you're in Florida I'll take you sailing."

Suddenly the song Sailing by Christopher Cross drifted into her head.

Sailing takes me away to where I've always heard it could be

Just a dream and the wind to carry me

And soon I will be free...

She imagined herself on a calm, warm ocean, a gentle sea breeze pushing them gently along, the boat rocking gently on the mild swells, just her and the girls... and a tall handsome man at the tiller... "Yeah, I like that idea," she murmured. "Let's go sailing." She sipped her tea. "Where will you take me?"

"John and I, that's my brother, we do our sailing on the intercoastal waterway, the Indian River. Generally, north out of Jupiter Florida, up to Melbourne, up to Port Canaveral, on occasion we go south to Miami Beach and the Florida Keys."

The names of the cities and ports of call sounded so exotic and exciting to a Denver girl whose longest journey ever, landed her in a ditch in Western New York, in a snowstorm. "Will you take me to the Bahamas?"

"Yeah, let's do that, let's go to the Bahamas, it's just one-day to get there from Jupiter. We can picnic on the beach, swim in the moonlight, and get enough souvenirs to bury the girls. Have you ever been there?"

"No," she said sadly, "I never traveled much, but I did plan to go to Canada once."

"What happened?"

"I got lost," she said sadly, then she cheered "but I met a nice man who said that he will take me to the Bahamas!" A brief tickle fight broke out, giving the two grieving people a needed laugh, for Paul it was the first joyful laugh in years.

Settling down Andi watched the flames in the big glass window of the wood burning stove, it looked to Andi like the flames were dancing in slow motion, and their dance was so hypnotizing. "Why does the fire do that?" she asked pointing to the stove. "Why do the flames move so slow?"

"When you cut back on the air that goes into the combustion chamber the fire burns slowly like that. When I want to put the fire out, I just shut off all the air going to feed the fire and the goes out. No fuss, no muss."

They sat for a while longer, the music changed from guitar to piano instrumental Christmas music. She leaned forward and placed her empty mug on the ammo crate that serves as a coffee table, then leaning back she took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder because it felt like the right thing to do.

Paul pulled her closer and she snuggled in, secure in feeling no pressure to go anywhere further. "What was your best Christmas and your worst Christmas?" he asked. "Worst first."

She didn't even pause. "My worst Christmas was five years ago. My husband had taken off with some floozy, he served me with divorce papers and wanted everything, the car, the condo, and spousal support. There I was, suddenly a single mother of two preemie babies barely a month old doing everything wrong, dead broke, up to my eyeballs in debt - student loans and medical bills, my mother was no help at all, she kept getting on my nerves, I wished my dad were alive to see my babies..." she let out a shuddering sigh of exasperation and wiped away the tears with the sleeve of Paul's robe.

"What was the best?"

After a long pause she said "Believe it or not, it was the same day. I finally got to bring my babies' home. They were in the preemie ward for a month, but we got home and there I was with two beautiful new daughters, perfect in every way, I couldn't stop counting their fingers and toes. Nana and Grandpa Olson drove down from North Dakota and brought lefse and sandbakkels and Nana kept mom away from me so I could spend time with Grandma Roberts, my dad's mom. Grandma Roberts came up from Arizona to see the babies and it was the last time I got to see her; she passed away after that New Years. The very last thing she said to me was that she saw my dad bright and clear in his grandchildren." Andi stopped and sniffled a little, enjoying the sweetness of the memory before she said, "And Lucy, she was such an angel to me, she helped so much, I don't know how we would have made it without her. I hope you get to meet her someday."

"I wish I could have been there" he said quietly.

"What about you? What was your best and worst Christmas?" Andi asked, "worst first."

"That's easy, the year Melony died," he sighed and after a long pause he continued. "I was in our housing unit alone. I had just been told by the housing office the day before that since I was no longer married, I had to move out of base housing and into Bachelor Officers Quarters, BOQ, it's kind of like a dorm, or move off base. So, on Christmas Eve I went to my commander and told him I was done, I didn't even wait to hear what he had to say. I turned on my heel and went straight to the base personnel office and started the retirement process. Instead of opening presents, I spent Christmas day packing. I called her parents and told them that if there's anything of hers that they want, come get it because on January 15 I'm sending everything left behind to the dump." Paul's mood slowly sank into a darkness that equaled Andi's when she recalled her worst Christmas.

Andi held his right hand with both of her small, perfect hands, "And your best?"

"Oh, we had so many great Christmases when I was a kid, God I love Christmas, that's why you hear Christmas music and see my decorations, all from that era. And the best ones were when we were dead broke, but I think the best one was the year after I got out of the air force and moved here that my sister-in-law Macy was able to get my brother and I to reconcile. We hadn't spoken to each other in years, maybe decades. We sat down right here in this cabin and spoke for the first time in ages. It was so good to have my brother back. We've been tight ever since, I hope you get to meet them someday, John and Macy."

The music finally stopped, and they sat together in silence, the only sound was the occasional snap from the fire. Andi eventually broke the reverie by saying "Do you think this is going anywhere?"

"By 'this' you mean...?" he pointed back and forth between himself and Andi.

"Yeah, us."

"I really don't know, here we are, a couple of doctors, grown professionals, covered with battle scars and painful oozing wounds. We know better, right?"

"Right," she agreed.

"Besides, we're both wearing so much clothing, we'd have to stop and feed the twins breakfast before we got it all off." And with that they both began to chuckle as they leaned toward each other, their foreheads touching. "I need to put more wood on the fire," he said sadly.

"And I think I should head back upstairs," she said with a frown.

He got up and added a few good size logs to the fire, and as he did, he heard a series of familiar clicks. When he turned around, he saw that Andi had converted the couch to a bed. "I decided that I really shouldn't wake them, they're so tired." She had a slightly worried look on her face, unsure if she were doing the right thing, but she patted the couch next to her.

"Those cots upstairs are very squeaky," he agreed, "you'd wake them up for sure. It would be irresponsible."

"You're very thoughtful," Andi smiled as he helped straighten out the blankets. They lay down and covered themselves with the heavy blankets. They lay face to face gazing in each other's eyes and Paul saw a smile cross Andi's face. "This is so wonderful," she whispered.

"This is perfect," responded Paul, then he gave her a gentle kiss on her exquisite lips. "Good night Doctor Roberts."

She kissed him back. "Good night Doctor Jarecki." She rolled over and snuggled back against him. He put his arm over her, and her hand reached up and gently grasped his wrist, pulling his arm tight around her. It never occurred to her to question that kiss, it simply happened. In moments they were sleeping deeper than either of them had slept for a decade.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Andi woke to the smell of coffee and frying bacon. She didn't dare open her eyes, what if she opened them and found she was in a generic motel room in a generic town and that last night, the first warmth and security in ages were just a dream? She then felt breathing, panting on her cheek and slowly opened her eyes in terror of seeing some kind of pervert closing in on her only to see Wonka 'smiling' at her in that open mouth way that all Labrador Retrievers have. "Good morning Wonka."

Paul gently nudged Wonka out of the way and knelt facing Andi. "Good morning Dr. Sleepyhead. Are kisses still authorized?"

She smiled. "Little ones, and not around the girls." He gave her a sweet kiss on the lips to greet the morning and she waggled her eyebrows "We may need to change the prescription, Doctor. Maybe we can titrate up, but first your patient needs coffee - stat!"

Paul magically produced a steaming mug, with real cream, a touch of sugar and a hint of chocolate and peppermint. "This is my Christmas blend. I drink it black most of the time, but during the holidays I add flavors."

"Oh, this is so good," said Andi as she rose, sipped her coffee and started fumbling around for her glasses. "I've got to get my toothbrush" she said as she pulled his gray robe around her and stumbled up the stairs followed by Wonka. As she worked her way up the stairs, the twins worked their way down heading for the bathroom. As they passed each other Wonka changed direction and headed downward to follow the twins.

"Good Morning girls!" said Paul cheerfully but the girls walked past him, heads down as if they were concentrating on the patterns of the wood floor. "Are they always this grumpy in the morning?" he asked Andi as she came back downstairs with a small case.

"They get it from their mother," she muttered as she walked past Paul. Then she stopped, patted him on the chest and arched her neck up for another kiss. "Just how old are you?"

"Fifty-three."

"That's a good age, I like that age."

"And how old are you?" asked Paul.

"Never ask a woman that question," said Andi as she wagged her finger at him and headed into the 'modern' cabin to use the facilities.

Not long after they dressed, they gathered around the table for pancakes, bacon, and oatmeal. The girls were not overjoyed by the oatmeal and they didn't like the syrup. "It's real maple syrup!" insisted Paul.

"It's yucky," said the twins.

Paul got up and made a quick trip to the pantry in the newer cabin. He came back with two bottles, one was a cheap store brand imitation maple syrup, the other was a blood red favorite in western New York, loganberry. "Here, this is probably what you're used to, and this one is fruit."

As expected, the twins loved the loganberry.

Andi was curious about the source of the bacon; it was quite delicious. "Where did you get this? I normally don't eat bacon, but this is incredible."

"It's local, trust me, I knew the hog personally," said Paul.

"You knew the hog?" asked Andi, incredulous.

"Yep, Brad Clemmons up the road a piece raised it. He showed it off whenever I visited. When it met that great pork chop in the sky, Brad gave me some in exchange for a chunk of brisket I smoked from one of Gerry Hirsh's cows."

"You smoke your own meat?"

"Yes ma'am. I cured and smoked that bacon too. The land is bountiful, between the four farms here we raise cow, pig, chicken, sheep, goats, ducks and the occasional turkey. From the field and woods, we harvest turkey, deer, grouse, woodcock, squirrel, possum, pheasant, duck, dove, and geese. From our ponds and cricks we get sunfish, blue gill, perch, bass, trout, and walleye.

"He said crick," giggled Madeline.

"It's CREEEEEEEEK!" corrected Sandy.

"There's a difference between a creek and a crick. A creek is a beautiful stream, maybe a little waterfalls here and there, birds and deer splashing and drinking."

"So, what's a crick?" demanded Sandy.

"A crick is a cow's bathroom."

"Ewwww!"

Andi calmed the girls down easily enough, she was grateful that they didn't ask about eating squirrels and dove, both of which she had eaten thanks to her father and her grandpa Ole. "When do you get time to rest up here?"

"We do all kind of things up here, you just caught us on bad day..." He said gesturing to the window, then he looked out of the window, "... make that week." The snow was swirling around as the wind picked up. Andi noticed that Paul had cleared the driveway again while she slept this morning.

"How much longer is this storm going to last?" she asked. It was now Thursday morning; with luck it will blow itself out and the conference can start as scheduled on Tuesday.

"The storm is moving north today, so we get a break while the city and the suburbs get hit, but it will be back tonight, and tomorrow, and Saturday. That's life in the snowbelt. Hey - while I was in the big barn this morning, I found a Christmas tree stand and some lights and ornaments, what do you say we go back in the forest and get a Christmas tree for the cabin when we get a break in the weather?"

"Yeah!"

"Can we mom? Can we?"

"I don't know," Andi looked at Paul, "can we?"

"Sure, I got just the machine to get us back in the woods."

"How much do they cost?" asked Madeline suspiciously.

"Yeah," said Sandy with her fists on the table.

"We'll go into the forest and find a tree that will fit in that corner over there, cut it down, and bring it home..."

"That's stealing!" demanded Madeline.

"Yeah," said Sandy and she thumped her fists on the table.

"She's got you there," said Andi with a smile.

With a mock defeated sigh Paul said, "Ok, when we find a tree your mom will call the guy who owns the trees and ask him how much he wants, Ok?"

"Oh Kay!" said Madeline.

"Yeah," said Sandy crossing her arms in defiance.

After breakfast clean-up, the girls were ready to go get their tree, but Paul reminded them that they wanted to learn how to make bread. "Is it hard?" asked Sandy.

"The old fashion way is hard," said Paul, but he tapped a finger to his temple, "we have a machine to make it easy." He placed a bread machine on the counter, and when he saw that neither child could see over the edge of the counter, he placed his assistants on the counter too.

Andi came down from the loft expecting the girls to at least have their snow pants on, but they were nowhere to be seen, but she heard Paul emit a loud belch from the kitchen followed by the sound of the twins giggling. She approached quietly and heard Madeline squeal uproariously, "That's not true!"

"It really is true," said Paul, "these little yeasty guys burp and that's what makes the bread fluffy."

"Do it again!" demanded Sandy.

Paul swallowed air a few times then released a highly impressive belch, which caused Madeline and Sandy to break out in laughter again. They laughed so hard that Andi thought the girls would wet their pants. "Ok, who wants to put the yeasty guys into the machine?"

"I do!"

"I do!"

"It's Madeline's turn, Sandy, you've put in the salt."

Andi was amazed that the girls didn't squabble as they normally did with someone other than Andi watching them. Paul seemed to naturally put the right amount of steel in his words to keep them in line but kept his expression soft enough to keep them smiling. Andi peeked around the corner and saw that both girls were on the counter crouched on either side of the bread machine. Madeline was pouring the yeast out of a teaspoon into the bread machine hopper, her little tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on pouring the yeast. Andi wondered why such a simple job required so much concentration, but finally Madeline cried out "I did it Doctor Paul! And I didn't get any yeasty guys on the salt!"

"Good job! Give me five!" Paul held his hand up and Madeline slapped his palm.

"Salt kills yeasty guys!" chanted Sandy, and Paul gave her a high five too.

"Ok, let's get this bread going!" said Paul. "Your turn Sandy." And with that he handed her a measuring cup containing water that she carefully poured into the hopper. He pressed a few buttons, then suddenly the machine sprang to life. The girls watched in awe as the paddles mixed the ingredients together, then Paul closed the lid and announced, "Good job troops!" and held his hand up for another high five.

"Should we get a Christmas tree?" called Andi and with a pair of yays, the twins hopped down from the countertop and began to get dressed up in their winter garb. While Andi was buckling them into their snow pants, boots, coats, and mittens, Paul pulled on his parka and went out to the big barn and got his sled ready.

When the girls came out of the cabin, he pulled up to them on a Yamaha VK-450 utility snowmobile towing a Snowcoach trailer. The Snowcoach trailer is an egg-shaped trailer on a large pair of skis with side by side seating for two adults and a utility box behind the seats for storage. All of that is removeable making the Snowcoach a pure utility trailer which Paul normally used to haul firewood.

Andi and Paul lifted the girls into the Snowcoach and buckled them to the seats while putting bicycling helmets on over their knit hats, then Andi and Paul put on snowmobile helmets and climbed aboard the Yamaha. Paul added a little throttle and off they went, keeping to his promise to Andi that he could choose the route, but she could determine the speed.

Ignoring Sandy and Madeline's shouts to "Go faster," Paul drove along the driveway and gave Andi a tour of the 'front end' of his property. There was a low hill built between the cabin and the road to ensure privacy and the drive curved around the base of the hill. The land was all open between the hill and the road except for a couple of tree lines that were just starting to come into their maturity. "It looks like you enjoy privacy," Andi said over the purr of the Yamaha.

"Well, yeah. Sauna you know, we don't need spectators."

Andi put her arms around him and snuggled closer. She has known him for less than 20 hours and in that short time she's drawn closer to him than any man in years. 'Probably just puppy love, crushing, infatuation,' she scolded herself. "Just what do you wear when you sauna?" she asked Paul, she had no idea why she asked.

"A smile."

Normally Andi would have laughed at the joke, or grimaced depending on the time and company, but this time his answer put her in the mood to sauna. She shook her head - 'Puppy love!' her conscience screamed. 'Shut up conscience,' something else inside of her whispered.

As they reached the main road Andi realized that there was over 3 feet of snow built up on the road, and according to the radio weather reports there's another three feet at a minimum on its way. At least it's not cold, she thought. So far, the coldest has been 18 degrees, and that was last night. Paul turned the sled off the driveway, and up on to the snow in the field, pulled up next to a tall mound he had built with the tractor while plowing and stopped. He climbed off the Yamaha and onto the mound and held his hand out to Andi who took it and climbed to the top of the snow pile with Paul.

At the top Paul showed Andi the points of interest as the sun weakly shown through the cloud cover. A mile or so east was Brad Clemmons's place where he got the hog belly for the bacon, a couple of miles west was Gerry Hirsh's dairy farm. Across the road was Josh Gravely who purchased an old scout camp.

Re-boarding the sled, Paul headed straight toward the hill and Andi noticed the difference between the snowmobile's ride on the lightly snow-covered driveway and on the deep snow. Here on the deep snow the ride was so much softer, even though the speedometer showed the same speed, the ride seemed so much slower and smoother. When they reached the top of the hill Paul stopped the sled again but didn't get off. He wasn't in the mood to sink into 3 feet of snow.

"Over there you can see where the dirt for this hill came from. There was a cow pond dug on this land, I dug it out a bit larger. It's fed by a spring like our cistern."

Andi could easily see the pond, it wasn't quite frozen over yet, so the shape was quite discernable. "A kidney shaped pond?"

"I tried to do a heart but couldn't get the ventricles quite right."

Andi slugged him. "Smartass!" she said with a grin, then she suddenly panicked realizing what she had done. She let go of Paul's waist and leaned back "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Paul turned and saw the starting of panic in her eyes and was shocked, he realized that she was probably panicking from the treatment she received in the past, maybe from her husband. He must have really worked this girl over. Paul stood up on the sled and jumped off into the snow where he sank in up to his waist. He waded through the deep snow until he was about 10 feet away. Andi stopped cowering and leaned forward to hear what he was saying.

"Andi, you're completely safe here. If you ever want to poke, hit, or slap me in jest or in anger, it's ok. I'm not going to respond in kind, I'm not going to punish you for having feelings, I'm not going to hurt you for touching me."

Her mouth opened and closed a few times in confusion then she shouted, "You can say that, but do you mean it?"

"If you don't think I mean it, then go. You're on a fully fueled up sled with your two babies, you can be over there at Gerry's farm asking for help in a matter of minutes. Or, when you get to Gerry's farm you can turn on to Route 39 and be in Springville in a half hour, and I can't do anything about it but wallow through this deep snow. I care for you, and I need you to feel safe."

"I didn't mean to..." she stopped and demanded, "how do I know you're not like the others?"

'Oh crap,' thought Paul, 'she's been abused multiple times.' "You can hit me again if you want."

Andi thought for a few moments then said, "Get back up here..."

Paul backed up and held his hands out wide. "Not until you hit me. You have 120 acres of white wet ammo at your fingertips."

Andi realized that he wasn't going to move until she hit him with something just to make a point, so she scooped up a hand full of snow, compressed it into a ball and threw it at him. She missed and he didn't move. So, she threw another ball in a gentle arc that splatted on his shoulder. "Are you going to get back on this snowmobile?

"Again," he replied, "this time with feeling."

She made another snowball and really got behind this one, it struck his stomach area hard.

"Better. Again."

She threw another, and another, and another. The pain of being small and being hurt and abused simply because she was small and a woman welled to the surface, from being picked on in grade school to being slapped around in her own home by her own husband who promised to love, honor, and protect her. She vented her anger in over a dozen snowballs. The twins realized something big was happening, yet they remained quiet until Andi threw her last snowball and sat on the saddle of the Yamaha trying to catch her breath.

"Yay mommy!"

"Mommy wins!"

Andi jumped off the snowmobile crying and waded over to Paul who finally lowered his arms and wrapped them around her. "If I say another wise-ass thing I need you to give me a smack, or a poke, or something."

"Why?" she sighed as her arms wrapped around this tall man who decided to be her white knight.

"So that I know you get it. So that you know you can. So that we know that we're communicating."

"Where's our tree?" shouted Madeline, then she and Sandy started stomping their feet chanting "Tree, tree, tree, tree..."

Paul scooped Andi up in his arms and waded back to the snowmobile. Andi whooped and demanded to be put down, but she wrapped her arms around his neck. Tears filling her eyes she relaxed in his arms and allowed a warmth to fill her heart. For his part Paul was shocked at how light this tiny fireball felt in his arms, and how right it felt holding her like this. He struggled back to the snowmobile and sat Andi on the back seat, then he pulled himself up out of the snow and on to the seat of the Yamaha. The motor fired up and they were headed back down the hill while the twins whooped and yelled "FASTER!" Andi wrapped her arms around his waist, then drew back her right arm, balled up her tiny fist and gave him a shot to the ribs.

"What was that for?" he gasped. She had some power in that little arm.

"Next time."

Soon they were in the large forest that covers over two thirds of the land. After much driving up and down they found a tree that they liked near a stand of needleless Larch trees. For no apparent reason there stood a group of balsam saplings, and the twins selected one of these.

"This one?" asked Paul. "It's not very big."

"It's a Charlie Brown tree," said Andi, laughing into her mitten.

"That's the one!" nodded Sandy firmly.

As Paul started to dig the snow away from the base of the tree with the folding shovel, Madeline demanded that her mom call the owner to make sure it was ok to cut it down. "Call him!" she demanded.

Andi rolled her eyes and pulled her cell phone out of a zippered pocket, pulled off her helmet, and made the call. She waited with her phone to her ear, eyes rolled skyward when suddenly Paul's cell phone began to ring. He stopped shoveling and answered the phone. "Doctor Jarecki, how may I help you?"

"Doctor Jarecki, this is Doctor Roberts, we're in your forest and we were wondering how much you would charge for a sapling."

"A sapling? With tax that comes to 25 cents. Just leave the money on the table in the cabin."

"Thank you, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

The twins watched the exchange and realized they were being had. "Hey!" they cried.

"This was your idea," said Andi, "They're doctor Paul's trees."

"Be that way!" pouted Sandy.

It took a minute with a folding saw to fell the sapling, which Paul wrapped in a blue plastic tarp and tied behind the Snowcoach to tow back to the cabin. Andi looked up at the tall, ramrod straight Larch trees, easily 100 feet tall. "I heard of pine trees that lose their needles in the fall, but I have never saw it before."

"You should see it when they grow back - super bright neon green, just beautiful," said Paul as they re-mounted the snowmobile and headed back to the cabin. "I'd love it if live oak trees would grow up here," he said wistfully.

"What's a live oak?" asked Andi.

"It's a tree with acorns like an oak, but it's an evergreen, it doesn't drop its leaves until the new leaves are in place. They grow down south."

There were hints of snow back in the woods, flakes drifting down between the snow-covered trees, but as they rode along the snow returned in force. By the time they reached the cabin area they couldn't see the cabin through the falling snow until they were practically upon it. Paul dropped Andi and the girls under the patio roof where Wonka excitedly greeted them, untied the tree, then circled off to park the sled and the Snowcoach in the big barn.

When he returned to the cabin, he found it quite chilly, the fire in the stove had burned out while they were tree hunting. He cleaned the wood stove of ash, and then rekindled the fire and soon the hiss and snap of burning wood and the radiant warmth of the fire filled the cabin.

"Do you mind if I check emails and make a few calls?" Andi asked Paul. He had just brought in the tree and mounted it in the base.

"No, go right ahead, we'll be busy with the tree." He had shown her how to connect to the Wi-Fi earlier, so soon she had her emails brought up. This was the first chance Andi had to check her emails and make a few calls since they left home so long ago... wait! It was only about 30 hours ago. Had she grown so in love with this place that fast?

An hour into her catching up with work, she looked up and saw that the tree was in the back corner of the cabin, far to the right of the wood stove at the foot of the stairs. Paul had strung lights and was now lifting each girl to hang the ornaments that Paul brought in from the big barn. She dialed the cell phone number of her top Nurse Practitioner.

"Katrina Mays," answered her nurse.

"Kit, it's Andi."

"Andi! Oh my God! I didn't look at the number when the phone rang. We heard about the blizzard, and no one's heard from you. Even your hotel called looking for you. How are you? What's going on?"

"Yes there is a blizzard, we got over three feet yesterday and we're expecting another three feet by tomorrow. The girls and I got lost 'way out in the boonies at the height of the storm and we went off the road. We were stuck, but the cops asked a local to help us out."

"And...?" Kit Mays was practically gasping for news.

"Let's just say he's helping the girls trim the tree right now and he told me in secret that he plans to watch Rudolph with them tonight."

"Awww," Kit's heart melted, "that's so sweet, what's he like?" Kit was clearly expecting an old farmer, his grey-haired farmwife making gingerbread for the girls while they trimmed the tree in the parlor. Maybe there's a spinet. There always has to be a spinet.

"Six foot two and H. O. T." whispered Andi.

"What?" squeaked Kit, "Talk girl!"

Andi told of the rescue, of riding in the hay wagon through the dark snow, warming by the fire...

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. Now tell me the Important part."

"Ok," sighed Andi. "Cardiologist with a fellowship in pulmonology, widowed, 53, about six foot two, maybe 190, black hair, gray at the temple, groomed salt and pepper beard, blue eyes, sweet smile."

"And...?"

"Maybe. I don't know..." sighed Andi. Kit was clearly talking about the opportunity for sex.

"Don't know? Girl go for it! Who is this Prince Charming?"

"It's Paul Jarecki."

"That name's familiar, hang on..." Kit furiously did an internet search on him, "yeah, cardiologist. It says here that he punched out a squadron commander and got thrown out of the Air Force."

"Thrown out? No, he said he retired..." Andi suddenly felt her heart sink, she knew better than to listen to internet rumor, but Paul was too good to be true, he even figured out how to handle her freak-out like he did with the snowballs. She turned and looked at his "I Love Me" wall to see his awards and plaques from the military and medical career. Amid the fancy documents was a very plain military form, framed in an overly expensive frame. His DDform214, his discharge order. "I found his discharge, he retired honorably," she said feeling relief pour back into her heart.

"Well, anyhow, that's what it says. His doctor reviews are all five stars, they say he's nice but really reserved."

"Yeah, he is reserved, he lives on his hobby farm and plants trees and works remotely when he can," said Andi.

"Then he's perfect for you," said Kit. "You're the same way, just without the barn and the dog. You leave work and hide in that condo of yours never coming up for daylight. He's got his farm to love, you have your girls. You should propose before the blizzard stops."

They spoke about a few patients that were a concern, that sweet Mr. Divorak has pneumonia again and Kit was wondering if he should be admitted. "Run a CT on his lungs and check the lobes, if he coughs up any blood like last time get him to the ER."

"Got it," said Kit. "How bad is that blizzard? It's making the news here."

"Like I said, we got about three feet yesterday, and we're expecting another three to four feet by dinner time tomorrow."

"And what are you expecting for tonight?" asked Kit with a sly tone to her voice.

Andi thought of their night on the couch last night, it was so good to be so close to a man who just wanted to cuddle and not beat or rape her. Will it repeat? Will it go further? She thought of his hands, those hands which never seem to tire from work, which cuddle the twins so gently but hold her so firmly. Big hands too. "I'm thinking six to eight inches here tonight. Bye!" She hung up quickly not believing she said that out loud.

Her next call was to her friend Lucy Kocis, who didn't answer the phone. She left a voice mail telling her that she and the girls were fine, holed up in a cabin, and would see her when they got back on the road.

She stuck her nose back into the emails, then bringing up the University VPN she started looking at patient records, then she peeked over her monitor at the kids. What she saw caused her to quietly get up, move to the front of the cabin and set her phone to camera mode. She made sure she got the cheery fire, the couch with the Scotch plaid blanket, and the tree in the shot. When did Paul string lights on the staircase handrails?

A few minutes later Nurse Practitioner Katrina Mays received an email with a photo attached that simply said, "My Merry Christmas." She opened the attached picture to see a very cozy cabin with rustic Christmas decorations and centered was a scraggly "Charlie Brown" tree covered in lights, ornaments and construction paper chain garlands. The photo showed Paul helping the twins hang tinsel, beneath them a chocolate lab lapped merrily away at the tree's water trough.

Not long later Andi placed a hot steaming pot of chicken noodle soup and a plate of sandwiches on the table for her famished tree crew. They ate with gusto, the twins more so because if they ate up their entire supper, they would be allowed to watch TV for the first time in two days. When they were finished and everything put away, Paul placed a small flat screen monitor on the table and ran a cable to it from his router, so he could stream cartoons for the twins. He also provided them with construction paper, crayons, safety scissors, and glue sticks that Andi had packed for them. He was hoping they would be inspired by the cartoons to create decorations for the cabin.

Zipping up her jacket Andi said "You guys be good and stay away from the wood stove! Doctor Paul and I are going to go get some more firewood."

"K mom."

"Yeah, bye!" They never averted their gaze from the screen.

The snow swirled around them as Paul showed Andi the woodshed next to the cabin. It was merely a roof and three walls protecting the wood from weather, there was no door to it as Andi had always pictured a woodshed to be. On the side of the cabin was a large wooden box, two feet deep, four feet wide and three feet tall with a slanting shingled lid. She knew from watching Paul that you could get to the contents of the box from the inside of the cabin through a small door to the left of the stove. Paul showed her to lift the shingled lid and check the level of wood available for the stove, how to place the wood, where to...

Andi grabbed his parka and pulled his mouth to hers ending the lecture. Her tongue sought out his as they kissed, his arms encircling her torso, her arms to his waist. When they broke the kiss, Paul saw that Andi's beautiful brown eyes were practically spinning. "I take it that we have graduated from little kisses?" he asked.

"Yeah, big kisses now..." their lips drew together mutually and for a long time their world consisted of nothing but this moment when their mouths met, their tongues entwined, their arms embraced, and their breathing stopped. Paul wasn't ready for their height difference and his neck began to ache a little so he scooped her up so they could kiss more comfortably. Without realizing it her legs wrapped around his waist and she clung to him as they kissed. His hands shifted down to her round butt and he held her tight as their lips and tongues explored each other.

"Would it be weird if I said that I always wanted a daddy to hold me like this?" she whispered as they recovered from their kisses.

"A sugar daddy?"

"No, that's romantic prostitution. I want a man who is emotionally mature and secure in himself. Someone I can lean on and count on. I want a man."

Paul sat down on the roof of the wood box and held Andi on his lap. Their lips met again and this time their kiss grew burning hot with their passion. One arm wrapped around her back holding her close, the other hand wrapped around the back of her neck holding her tight to his kiss. It wasn't threatening, it was secure. When they broke from their kiss, they sat in the swirling snow, foreheads touching, both shuddering from the intensity of the sudden passion.

Finally Paul said, "I think a good man to encourage and support and be a daddy would help quite a few women. If it's what you want, what you need, I'll be your daddy for as long as you want."

Her heart simply melted at that point. Yes, she's a world renown doctor, yes she's proud and accomplished, and a great single mom, but something feels so right being in this man's arms. It feels so safe and secure. It's like she now has a base to launch from, to accomplish more. "Oh daddy," she sighed, and it felt so good to say that she almost cried. This time their kiss was tender, loving, a kiss to base their lives upon.

When they broke the kiss, Paul stood and let Andi down and they held each other close. She had unzipped his parka a bit and rested her cheek against his chest listening to his heartbeat and languishing in his scent. "I've waited so long to find someone who will kiss me like that," she purred.

"How long did you wait?" he whispered.

"I told you, never ask a woman her age."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Andi's kisses tingled on Paul's lips the entire time it took to fire up the Kubota tractor and clear the entire driveway, access to the main barn front and side doors, and clear away the front of the cabins. While he did all this, the girls were at work inside. Andi had turned off the cartoons and opened a box of decorations for the girls to hang in the cabin. She pulled out a bell that looked interesting, it was large and looked like it was made of lace but was finely woven white wire covered with white glitter.

"What is that inside, mommy?" asked Sandy pointing to the green plastic leaves and white plastic berries that hung inside in place of a clapper.

"That's mistletoe, it's a special Christmas plant."

"What does it do?" asked Madeline who sounded skeptical. Andi's twin girls may have identical DNA, but their emotional makeup was worlds apart. Sandy was the comical, full steam ahead girl, while Madeline was more cynical, she was not the one to jump blindly into something. Andi could foresee a time in their future where Sandy would ask Madeline to cover for her while she did something like skip class to spend time with a boy, and Madeline would be the "Who is he, what's his GPA, and what's in it for me?" member of the family.

"I've heard it said that when a man kisses a woman underneath the mistletoe, they have good luck all year long."

"What if he doesn't kiss her?" asked Sandy.

"It is bad luck if he doesn't kiss her. Very bad. We don't want bad luck to happen, do we?"

"Even if I'm standing under it?" asked Madeline who clearly did not want a boy to kiss her, not even Dixie's brother Melvin.

"You're safe," reassured Andi. "It only works for grownups."

"What about Doctor Paul?" asked Madeline who wasn't quite sure that she was still safe.

Andi dragged a chair to the doorway between the old cabin and the modern building. "Doctor Paul is too old, so you wouldn't have to kiss him if you didn't want to. But if I were standing under the mistletoe, he'd have to kiss me, or I would have bad luck all year long." She stood up on the chair and with a thumb tack mounted the mistletoe bell in the doorway. "And if I have bad luck, the two of you have bad luck too!"

"Don't hang it there mommy!" cried Sandy, "you might stand under it!"

"I have to hang it darling."

"Why?"

"Because it's Mistletoe, it's for Christmas!" she explained, "rules are rules."

"Oh," said Sandy, nodding at the sage wisdom of the statement.

Suddenly Madeline gasped, "It's Doctor Paul! He's coming!" the twins went in to panic mode. "Stand right there mommy, it will be ok!"

Paul stepped in the door and the twins assailed him, chirping commands at the top of their lungs. All he could catch was "Missile Toast" and "Bad Luck" and "Kiss" and "Hurry!" He glanced over at Andi who was standing under his mother's favorite Mistletoe Bell smiling in amusement. As he tried to peel off his parka, the two excited girls shoved him over to Andi who was softly saying "Help!" and "Rescue me!"

"Kiss her!" shouted the twins, "or we'll have bad luck!"

"Kiss her? Here?" asked Paul, "on her face?"

"Yes!" they shouted.

"Ok, but remember, this is your idea."

"Kiss her!" the twins shrieked together.

Paul wrapped his arms around Andi, leaned in and gave her a little kiss on the lips to the cheers of the girls. Andi reached up and wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him in for a memorable kiss.

"Crisis averted, my big macho hero," smiled Andi.

"What a way to break the ice with the kids, my summa cume laude wonder woman," said Paul as he leaned in for another welcomed kiss. Seeing their mommy being kissed at their own request allowed Andi and Paul to kiss before the twins whenever they want.

"Whew!" said the twins as they slumped to the floor, Sandy resting her back against Paul's leg, Madeline leaned against Andi. Mission accomplished. Crisis averted.

Wonka stood watching the whole thing in confusion as Paul and Andi kissed again. And again.

"Time for Rudolph," announced Paul who was still amazed at the way Andi was able to let the kids know they were kissing in a way they would enjoy.

The girls leapt up and took their seats at the table, waiting to watch Rudolph on the 27" flatscreen, but Paul walked over to the wall to the left of the wood stove. On that wall hung a large painting of a huge steam locomotive. Paul grabbed the bottom of the frame and swung up; the painting was held to the wall with hinges. He held it up to the ceiling and fixed it in place with hook and eye fasteners. Behind the painting was a 65" Samsung 4k UHD TV. Andi was aghast that he hid this from her, but Paul said "You expect me to watch my beloved Buffalo Bills on that little computer monitor?

Paul made a large bowl of popcorn while the family settled in and soon the timeless stop animation story of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer started. Wonka lay at their feet warming by the fire enjoying the feeling of the little girl's toes as they rubbed their feet on him. Paul sang along every time Burl Ives sang, ignoring the elbow jabs from Sandy, and Andi spoke all of Yukon Cornelius' lines until the twins put their hands over her mouth.

The girls were sound asleep by the time Burl Ives sang the 'Have A Holly Jolly Christmas' finale. Andi and Paul carefully lifted the moppets off the couch and carried them upstairs as Wonka followed. They laid the girls on the full bed and prepared to change them into their pajamas. If Paul had any true experience with children, he would realize that these girls were barely larger than a three-year-old. His specialties were centered on adults and not children, children with cardio or pulmonary issues went to pediatric specialists. But if he were able to see Sandy and Madeline next to normal 5-year-olds he would have recognized them as preemies.

"You're so good with them," whispered Andi. A sudden self-defeating thought in her head screamed at her that manly men don't like dealing with children and by complimenting him she just chased Paul away.

"They're so smart and sassy and I love them, I can't get enough. It's not hard when you guys are so wonderful to me," Paul said. "Do you want me to help get their jammies on?"

Her fears extinguished she said, "Why don't you go fire up the sauna?" said Andi giving Paul a sideways smile. "I like a lot of steam."

"On my way ma'am!" whispered Paul and after a quick kiss he crept down the stairs. He made sure the TV was off, the painting lowered, the firebox of the stove was full of wood, ash drawer was clear, and the air inlets were adjusted to the most efficient level. He admired how the flames danced in slow motion in the low oxygen environment of the fire box, then shut off the light over the table. He noticed that Andi had left her laptop open and there was an email she had received just before Rudolph started. He would not have looked but the email featured a picture of himself, Sandy and Madeline decorating the tree just a few hours ago. It read:

From: The Staff and Management of University Hospital, Pulmonology Dept.

To: Dr Adrianna Roberts

Re: My Merry Christmas

Marry Him.

Regards:

And it was signed by literally dozens of names of doctors, nurses, and technicians. Paul gave a chuckle at the thought, it was probably a joke on their part, then said to himself "Not a bad idea."

By the time Andi had the girls tucked in bed Paul had the sauna good and hot and ready to go, opening the door let steam swirl out. He stood waiting at the shower with a towel around his waist, Andi showed up with a bath towel wrapped around her body and her nightgown in her arms. "I brought down your sweats, I couldn't find any PJ's for you."

"Sweats are what I sleep in," Paul stepped in to take the clothes from her. She stopped him with a hand to the center of his chest.

"Hold on mister. Before we drop our towels and go get wet, I need you to know that I already am wet," she gave him a grin and a wag of her eyebrows. "I really, really, really want to make love to you, BUT - I've only known you about 30 hours, so this," and she patted his towel where his cock was bulging, "MUST stay outside of this." And she patted her towel in the area of her vagina. "That's the only rule. We can be loving, we can be silly, we can be anything you want, but we can't be pregnant."

Paul started to say something, but she raised a finger and cut him off with an "Ut, ut, ut! I am on the pill but it doesn't matter if I am or am not on the pill, the only way to be one hundred percent sure a baby won't come out is to make sure a sperm doesn't go in. And I don't trust condoms either. I really, really don't."

"I was going to say that I agree with you, but is there a chance that this ruling will change in the future?"

"Of course, silly," said Andi as she pulled him in for a kiss, "but at this point in time that would take a ring, a bouquet, and a preacher."

After they broke from their kiss Paul took the clothes from Andi and set them on a bench. As he did that, she grabbed his towel and pulled it down leaving him naked. He stood and turned around and she stared at his cock. It was half erect and slowly growing with every pulse. 'Maybe just a flower and a Lifesaver...' she thought.

Paul took the towel off of her like he was unwrapping a delicate, precious, flower. He gazed at her entire 32DD-24-34 body in barely controllable desire, her breasts were large for her tiny size, firm but with a bit of sag that accentuates their look. Her nipples were erect sticking out from dark coral pink areola. Her waist is narrow curving out to sweet hips, she spun around giving him a look at her cute, round bubble butt. The only possible flaw was her cesarean scar, and when he thought of those twins that he was growing to love as much as their mother, he saw the scar as a badge of the greatest honor.

He eased her under the shower head and pulled the handle down bathing them in the warm water, holding the handle until they were soaked, he then released it and took a bottle of body wash and began to lather her up. She gasped and mewled as his hands slid over her little body, hissing whenever his hands slid over a particular spot that she enjoyed. She tried to return the treatment but never got past his chest, her eyes seemed to go cloudy as his hands touched her and his lips sought out hers.

'It is so wonderful,' she thought, 'all smiles and warmth and love, no hint of pain.'

When his hands finally strayed to her breasts, she laced her fingers together behind her head offering herself to him without reservation. His slippery hands squeezed, hefted, and began tugging at her nipples in a slippery way that felt like her breasts were being suckled simultaneously. Her back arched involuntarily and she cooed in pleasure. Then his hands started to move downwards, circling slowly, one down her tummy, one down her back, one aimed at her vagina, the other toward her anus. "On the day, when I am yours and you are mine, I am going to fuck you so hard with so much love," he whispered.

"Yes!" she hissed as his words ignited the fuses of her passion. His soapy hands circled lower, slowly, agonizingly slow. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her mind cried out 'Here we go...!'

"I've waited so long for you, so, so long. And I'm going to take you with all the love and all the desire I have saved for you."

"Will you fuck my mouth?" she gasped. His hands and his words were driving her higher...

"I'm going to slide my cock in and out of your mouth while you kneel at my feet and watch my eyes and wait for my cum."

Her breath was coming in little gasps now. "Will you fuck my ass?" she whispered. It was the only bastion of virginity she had to give a man.

"I'm going to make you beg for it, and when you are mine, and when you beg me to make your anus mine, I will slide my hard dick inside your asshole and become part of you."

She was shuddering now, her mind full of images of her giving herself to this man that she now chooses. "My pussy... how will you fuck my pussy?"

"Baby, I will pound your pussy with force, and longing, and love. I am going to fuck the loneliness out of both of us and drive away the sad years and not stop until the day I die."

His hands slipped lower and lower and then suddenly as his fingertips touched the sparse hair in her pubic region it was too much. She began to convulse, her mind exploded in pleasure and wave after wave of sweet ecstatic release shot through her body. Her legs went limp and she slowly slid to the floor of the shower where she curled in in the fetal position shuddering so strongly that she couldn't open her mouth to sing out her ecstasy.

As if in a fog she heard Paul's voice "Baby, what's wrong?"

'Nothing's wrong, everything is perfect' her mind assured her, but the shaking and shuddering of her body was starting to get scary. She finally was able to whisper, "I'm coming... Oh Gawd I'm coming!" He drew her close and wrapped his arms around her as the convulsions and the ecstasy increased. "Ohhhh Miiiii Gaaawwd I LOVE YOU!!!" Her back arched and her legs shot out kicking the edge of the shower wall. He held her close as she came harder than he had ever seen a woman come in his life. Finally, her spasms and cries of passion died down and she went limp in his arms. She wrapped her arm behind his neck and pulled him close to kiss.

"I love you too," he whispered into her and their lips met. His hand slowly eased toward her vagina and he discovered that she wasn't kidding, she really was wet. "That was so beautiful," he said as their lips parted. "I want to do that to you a lot, lot more."

"You made me come and you just touched me... we haven't gotten to the good stuff yet," she smiled weakly.

"Incredible," he smiled. "Can you do that again?"

"I don't know, I've never done it before," She was still trying to catch her breath, "I don't think I ever came like that, at least not that hard." She played back his words in her head as she soaked in his nearness. Then she remembered what he said about loneliness. "Have you been lonely?"

He thought of a tough guy reply, something to hide behind, and in the end chose honesty. "After Melony died, sometimes I just wanted to die too I was so lonely. I have so much stuff, and no one to share it with. Maybe that's why I decided to come up here this weekend, die in a blizzard. But now here I am wet and naked with the most adorable, the sexiest mommy I'd ever want to rub my soapy body against. You truly are the answer to a prayer."

"I prayed for a partner too, I prayed during the beatings and the rapes," she looked back at those dark horrible years. Why was I so angry when he left? It was the best thing to ever happen to me. "I guess I was lonely too, during my entire marriage. I love my babies, but they leave me out of the conversation too often."

They lay on the floor kissing and sliding against each other, the loneliness a fading pain, talking about her incredible orgasm, and he never got close to her clit! "Do it again, I dare ya." She challenged him.

He gently began to slide his finger through her moisture and over her clit. "Challenge accepted, darling."

She grasped his wrist with her tiny hand and began to whisper "gently... gently..." and he did stroke her gently, and soon the convulsions were returning. She squeezed his wrist and pressed his hand hard against her clit. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth hung wide open wordlessly. Her entire body tensed and coiled up for the explosion to follow. Without warning her legs shot straight out and with a second erotic explosion she was convulsing helplessly again. "Oh Gaaawwwd!" she cried, "I'm coommmminnnggg!" waves of passion rocking her body. She grabbed his head with a hand over each ear and kissed him hard, her tongue shooting into his mouth, fucking his mouth in rhythm with the waves of pleasure that wracked her little body. Slowly she eased down from the peak of release, her breath coming in deep draughts. They finally curled together, gentle touches and whispers, not believing it, and both thanking the Lord for it. There on the floor of the shower their love blossomed. The kisses and the cuddling while naked, soapy, and wet finally cooled the fires momentarily.

They finally stood up, and Andi found that her legs could barely hold her up. "This has never happened before," she gasped, her voice was as shaky as her legs.

"You've never come before?"

"Not like that," even her eyes were shuddering, "not that hard, and never twice."

With one arm holding Andi up, Paul pulled the shower handle again, "It's the spring water."

Andi laughing said "The water? It's that water that makes me cum?"

"That's good spring water love, maybe your body isn't used to it." Laughing he pulled the handle and the warm water rained down. After rinsing off, Paul led her the sauna. Seated in the hot wooden enclosure Andi felt like she finally recovered from her powerful orgasms. "That was two," she sighed while leaning on Paul, "and one before you even touched my clit. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I was going to ask the same thing of you," he smiled. "Oh that feels wonderful..." Her hand had wrapped around his cock and began stroking his length.

His cock was so thick that the tip of her thumb could not reach around to the tips of her fingers. Andi doesn't know if she could take a cock of this size, but she was more than willing to try. She began to shudder just thinking about being stretched by this cudgel.

When it was good and rigid with precum easing out the slit she said "I need you to relax, I'm going to take a measurement. This won't take but a moment," she said in a tone of voice she would generally reserve for a patient.

"Go for it," grinned Paul.

Andi stood in front of him and she began to bend forward at the waist, leaning over further and further. Paul enjoyed the way her breasts hung down as she bent over. He reached for them. "Don't," she whispered, "you'll throw off the reading." Reluctantly Paul put his hands back on the bench as her mouth grew closer to his throbbing cock.

"One day really soon I'm going to spend the evening worshiping your breasts," he said.

His words caused her clit to tingle in excitement, but she couldn't respond, the tip of his cock was at her mouth and she was exploring it with her tongue. She opened her mouth wide and kept leaning over, his cock filling her mouth and moving into her throat. As her lips moved downward her tongue kept up a stroking of the underside of his cock. Deeper and deeper she forced his cock until three quarters of his cock was inside her mouth and throat. Paul couldn't believe what was happening, all his life a blowjob was a handjob with a lick of the knob. Here he sat in his sauna with his cock willingly swallowed by a beautiful, tiny doctor. She then stood up, his cock sliding out of her throat and mouth with unimaginable friction.

"We are finished, everything came out satisfactory."

"Tell me doc, what are the readings?"

"It's too soon to say, but I am satisfied with the results so far." she chimed. Then she rubbed her throat, "I think you found some virgin territory. I'm hoping you'll find more in other places," she said with an expectant smile.

She then bent over giving Paul a good view of her breasts as she began stroking his cock. He was fascinated with the jiggling of her breasts and before he even realized it, he was coming. Andi knew before he did and placed her mouth over his cock head and began licking and sucking in time with her stroking. Suddenly her mouth filled with his semen, she nursed at the spurting cock head and drank every drop he spent, her tongue lathing over his cock coaxing out more of the liquid she so eagerly sought. His orgasm was so powerful that his body convulsed along with his cock. Spasm after spasm of sweet relief wracked his body as he emptied his balls into her beautiful mouth.

When he finally relaxed, she swallowed then sat on his lap facing him, her knees on either side of his hips causing her wet pussy to kiss his spent cock. She looked a bit sad and uncertain and leaned forward for a kiss, which he returned with gusto. Her lips were hot and swollen from her suckling on his cock which made post blowjob kisses so wonderful. She shuddered with joy as his tongue tangled with hers, the anguish of rejection fading fast into a past she wants to forget.

"Why did you look sad when you started to kiss me?" asked Paul, holding her close and kissing her gently.

A visibly relieved Andi said "This is when my husband Frank would hit me. He didn't want to kiss me after coming in my mouth, but he'd get mad if I didn't act like it was the greatest gift that he could give me."

"It was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. I can't think of a reason not to kiss your mouth," said Paul as he hugged and kissed some more. His cock was regaining some strength and Andi began to slide her pussy up and down the length of his cock, her clit becoming engorged and tingling as she rubbed up and down, up and down. Before long she felt the pressures building inside of her. "This is nice Daddy," she shifted her hips and her clit slid all the way up his tumescent shaft which was slick with her juices.

"Daddy? Tell me why you call me Daddy," he groaned.

"Because you protect me, you keep me safe, oooooohhh," her pussy now slid back down his now raging cock, her pussy lips wrapping around it, her juices lubricating it and her clit being so stimulated by every fraction of an inch as it was dragged down the long thick shaft. "and you make me feel good. AAaaaaahhhh! Let me call you Daddy."

"Then be my baby," gasped Paul as her pussy wetly stroked his cock closer and closer to an explosion.

"It's happening again daddy," she gasped, her motions becoming jerky and desperate, her hips twitching and humping.

"Me too baby, you're going to make me cum," groaned Paul. He forced his eyes to stay open during his orgasm to see her O-face, which was beautiful and purely erotic enough to intensify his orgasm. He shot volley after volley of sperm onto their bellies as she leaned her head back and cried out her delight. They both shuddered and crooned their love for each other.

Andi collapsed on him with a sigh, both of their bodies covered with sweat and semen and pussy juice. "That was another big one."

"Mmmmm, speak for yourself mister, you must have pumped out a gallon so far tonight." Their lips met.

"God, but you cum good!" smiled Paul.

Worried that they were both overheating he led her out to the shower where they cooled off and cleaned off. Then after the shower Paul produced a Yeti thermos full of ice water that they drank until they got headaches from the frigid water.

"Thank you for all the love tonight," said Paul as they returned to the sauna.

"You don't thank a woman for sex," said Andi.

"Why not?"

"I don't know, you just don't," said Andi as she lay back on the bench.

Paul decided it was time for a closer look to her vagina. He bent down and ran his fingertips up and down the soft skin of her inner thighs. "I wasn't thanking you for sex, I thanked you for the love." He started at one knee and started kissing his way to her vagina trailing his tongue along her silky smooth and ultra-sensitive skin of her inner thighs. Once at her pussy he skipped over her pussy and started kissing back down to the other knee, then back again.

"Oooo that's nice, to you want me to come again daddy?"

But Paul could not answer, his mouth was busy making love to her sensitive inner thighs. Now every time he came to her cleft as he kissed his way from thigh to thigh, he added a quick gentle lick to her clit. With every lick her body would twitch, and she'd gasp in pleasure.

His hands held the two marshmallow scoops of her breasts, his index fingers flicking ever so gently on her hard nipples. Her eyes closed and her head rolled from side to side as the tensions mounted and her body felt like a rubber band being wound so pleasurably tight.

Finally, she couldn't take the teasing anymore and when his lips neared her pussy her hands grasped his head and wouldn't let him move past the center of her pleasure. "Daddy please!" she gasped. This was the moment he was waiting for. He moved his hands down to her pussy and with his thumbs he spread her pedals wide open, baring her flower for his tongue.

Licking and sucking he drove her to heights she never knew existed. He took her hands from his head and placed them on her breasts and returned his hands to her vagina. He eased a finger into her hot wet depths and with a groan wished he hadn't promised her no penile penetration. She was so far gone now she would welcome the intrusion of his throbbing cock, but a promise is a promise, especially to someone you love, so he eased two fingers deep inside the tight nest of her pleasure and the sharp intake of breath told him that this was the right thing to do.

As he finger fucked her pussy he sucked and licked her exposed and engorged clit. Looking up at her face he could see her eyes rolled back in her head, her hands were squeezing her breasts while she pinched her nipples. And now her pleasure overwhelmed her. She planted her heels on anything she could, in this case one heel on the bench, one on Paul's back. As her muscles tightened her ass lifted off the bench driving her clit into Paul's mouth and pushing him up.

Her hands shot back to Paul's head and held his mouth in place as her body began shuddering violently, "Daaaaaaddy!" she screamed "Oh Daaady don't ever stop! Oh My God!" and with an ear-piercing shriek she fainted.

A few minutes she recovered, warm and secure in Paul's arms. She put a tiny hand on his bearded cheek and gazed deep into his steel blue eyes. "That's why I call you Daddy, you saved me, you love my babies, you make me feel so good, and when I need you most, you're right here for me."

When the shuddering stopped and Andi caught her breath, she stood and took Paul's hand. "Come on daddy, time for the very best part."

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After catching their breath from their lovemaking Andi pushed a button on the wall and more steam entered the sauna. She pushed it again and again and soon the sauna was as foggy as London but as hot as Adana. They sat on the bench facing each other gently touching and kissing as innocent as young lovers but tempered by age and experience. As their heads began to spin from the heat and the humidity she said, "Let's step outside."

She stood and took his hand and they got out of the sauna and went outside. Standing naked and steaming hot in the near zero temperatures they kissed. Snowflakes swirled around them but being so hot and sweaty from the sauna the cold and snow felt invigorating. Andi's head was spinning, so in love and so sexually sated that all of her experiences in the past were mere dalliances compared the passion and love and utter mind-bending orgasms she just experienced. And in her mind, it was all just foreplay! If it continues like this would she survive the pleasure when they finally make love?

She had almost laughed when her teammates sent back an email saying to marry Paul, but right now that idea was ringing in her head so loudly she couldn't drive it away. She couldn't meet his eyes, she stepped back and said in a shaky voice "I know this is wrong... and you can yell at me if you want, but please don't hit me... We just met and I know this is so sudden but... I just... want... to... ask..." Andi's eyes filled with tears and expectation. She took a deep breath and prepared to put her entire life on the line. She gulped and opened her mouth...

Just as she was about to speak Paul slowly sank to one knee and gently took her tiny hand in his large strong hands. "Will you marry me?" he asked.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Clean and warm and dry Paul and Andi sat on the couch gazing at the fire the same way they did 24 hours ago, just over the hiss and pop of the fire in the stove Christmas carols played on a piano emitted from Paul's blue tooth speaker and occasionally they could hear Wonka grunt in his sleep upstairs in the loft.

"We're getting married! Now what do we do?" asked Andi as she closed her laptop. She just sent a reply to an email from The Staff and Management of the University Hospital, Pulmonology Dept. It was just three words; "He said yes."

A sudden despair overwhelmed her. "You won't like it there, and I can't move here, I have too much in Denver," she leaned on Paul's shoulder. "Maybe it won't stop snowing and we can stay here forever. Won't that be nice daddy?"

"Don't stress yourself over the details baby," answered Paul who tangled his finger in Andi's hair. "We have the rest of our lives to figure it out."

"Nana will understand, maybe. But Mother... and Frank, he'll be angry, he'll come after me..."

"What about your dad?" Paul asked.

"Father?" she shook her head and frowned "I call him that only because mother insists. He's just some random guy with money she married years ago. My real dad died in Iraq serving his country. What about your folks?"

"Dead and gone. They came from nothing and built a thriving business that allowed them to leave John and me a couple of properties; one in West Palm Beach and the other in Jupiter Florida. The house in West Palm is a rental, so that is going to make us some money that we will share with John and Macy, but the house in Jupiter we keep. My brother and I use it as a vacation place. I was planning to head down to Jupiter after the New Year, or maybe for the New Year. You would look so good on a sailboat."

Andi thought again of sunning on a sailboat, this time topless, the twins running up and down the deck in oversized life jackets, Paul at the tiller, and before she knew what she was doing she said "Yes, let's do it." Then she thought of Frank. "No no no no... We can't, it's just... Frank will..., "she gulped for air. "Just forget about it. Mother and father are one thing, but Frank will raise a stink about the twins, he might do something to me, and them."

Paul stopped her with a finger to the lips, which he then kissed. He was a bit bothered by the way she called her parents 'Father' and 'Mother,' it was creepy, it should be "mom" and "dad." But to be living in fear of the man who abused you so much so many years after he was out of the picture is wrong. "Frank is a jamoke, he's the least of your problems. Now me, I'm planning to retire, you'll have me on your hands twenty-four seven. I plan on home schooling the girls and teaching them right good American English. And I might have a lesson or two for that jamoke."

Andi smiled behind her tears. "Define 'jamoke.'"

"A clumsy loser who is incapable of performing normal human tasks."

"That's Frank," sighed Andi. Why was she so elated a few minutes ago and so down now? Orgasmic bi-polar? Bliss hangover? She wondered.

"Look doll, dis is Noo Yawk, we have a way of dealing wit jamokes that is best left unseen and even better left unspoken. We also have a way of honoring our veterans, one of which happens to be me, and the people who help our veterans, one of which happens to be you. And if honoring a veteran entails re-educating a jamoke, so be it." His tough guy Damon Runyon accent made Andi laugh despite her fears.

Suddenly Paul grabbed Andi's cell phone and started looking through it "Give me that, what are you doing?" she tried to grab her phone out of his hands, but his arms were too long. They tussled and laughed as he held the phone out at arm's length and searched the phone while she clawed, climbed, and tried to get it back.

"I'm just looking for your porn stash," he grinned and kept the phone out of her reach.

"That's on my laptop," she laughed and tried to grab the phone.

He pressed the send button and a ringing started indicating a video call. "This call should help you some," he said. He held the phone up high so that the person who answered the phone would be looking down on the two of them tussling on the couch. Suddenly a bleary looking woman answered the phone "Good evening Miss Elinore, thank you for answering," said Paul to the sleepy looking woman on the FaceTime call.

"What in the...? Little One, what have you gotten yourself in to now?"

"Nana?" cried Andi and she grabbed Paul's arm. "Oh Nana, you won't believe what happened!"

"Some nice fella just called me on your phone and it looks like you're in a wrestling match. I think you may need a talk with Nana. Tell me all about it Andi," the sweet old woman on the phone advised.

Paul released the phone to Andi who held it so her Nana could see her better and she did tell her about it, about the sudden snowstorm, about getting lost, and sliding off the road, and calling 911, and this weird old guy on a tractor who rescued her and her babies and kept them warm and safe and dry in his cabin, who loved her girls and cooked like a chef and had a dozen degrees and who made her feel so loved that she is now going to marry him after knowing him only 40 hours. "His name is Doctor Paul Jarecki, he's a cardiologist and a retired Air Force colonel, and he knows Uff Da!"

"Lieutenant colonel," said Paul, "and I also know lutefisk."

"We just proposed to each other, at the same time," Andi felt like a giggly teenage girl again enjoying her first crush. "He love me, he loves my babies, he has two tractors, and a snowmobile," and she went on in length describing her man.

When she finished, she was out of breath and near tears, but her Nana was smiling. "Did you get all that Knute?" she said to her off-screen husband.

"Sure did Maw, that snowstorm story, it is just like how we met all them years ago."

Andi's eyes shot wide open. "Wait Nana, what? You guys...?"

"Excuse your grandpa for letting family secrets slip but we were snowed in for two whole weeks. I was rushing to get home and slipped on the ice. This Knute fellow come out and picked me up, carried me in the house, and bound my ankle. By the time I was ready to move the storm was raging." Nana smiled and leaned into the camera conspiratorially, "Came out of that storm pregnant with your Uncle Darwin. We were married before Main Avenue was plowed clear and we don't regret a moment of it."

"No!" gasped Andi

"Yes, and it sounds like you just made short courtships a family tradition now!" cackled Nana. Paul and Andi could hear Grandpa Knute in the background chiming "That's the way to do it. You betcha."

Nana continued, "Now it sounds like you found a good man, he woke me up in the middle of the night because he was worried about you. Now that's a good man, a site better than that asshole your mother hooked you up with. Paw, what's that asshole's name?"

"Dunno, just been calling him asshole since the wedding," said Knute.

"Frank. His name is Frank," said Andi completely shocked at hearing her nana swear for the first time in her life.

"He was an asshole dear; I wish I could have been there when he left you so I could boot his dumb ass out the door!"

"Nana!"

"I didn't want to tell you, but there's another family secret out; Frank is an asshole," said Nana in a scolding tone of voice.

"I said jamoke," said Paul off screen.

"I don't know that word, but it probably applies," said Nana. "Now you pay no nevermind to those doubts, hear me? It sounds like you have a good man, a solid man. Knute has been Googling him while you told me your story; looks like he's been through a tough patch once or twice himself. Sorry about Melony."

"It's ok, thanks Miss Elinore," said Paul.

"Grandpa knows Google?" It's like Andi's shocks would never end this week.

"You hold on to that man, hold him tight, love him 'till the angels sing, and call me on Christmas morn, ok Honey?"

"Yes Nana, I will. Mind if the twins call you after breakfast?" Andi's relief was complete. The tension in her body flowed out of her in the short conversation.

"I'd love that dear, and I love you too," Nana said, "And Paul, you treat my girl right or I'll come down there and teach you a thing or two."

"Yes ma'am! And thank you for sharing her with me."

"I'm going back to sleep, why don't you two go back to whatever it was that you were doing?" and the screen went black.

Andi threw her arms around Paul and cried into his shoulder. "Thank you, daddy!"

"Are these happy tears or sad tears?" he asked as her shuddering eased.

"Super happy," she said with a sniff and looked him in the eye. She looked so beautiful in the light of the Christmas tree, the fire, and the candles, "thank you for saying yes."

"I asked first," said Paul as their lips met.

"You also said yes first," said Andi tugging up the hem of her nightgown.

"I'd be a jamoke if I didn't." Kissing they sank to the couch and pulled the blanket up. Spooning they reveled in their closeness. "It's been a very long and hard day," Paul whispered.

"Speaking of long and hard," agreed Andi as she pushed her bottom back against his crotch. "Are you still hard?" she asked as she waggled her butt against his cock.

"Yeah, are you?"

In response Andi grasped his hand and moved it up under her night gown, up to her passion swollen breasts. He felt her rock-hard nipple as he cupped her breast "A hard woman is good to find." He whispered in her ear and he fell into a blissful sleep as he listened to her giggle.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Slowly Andi opened her eyes and realized how cold it was. Not dangerous cold, just cold enough to make her want to snuggle closer to her fiancé... suddenly the word rang in her head - fiancé - a million conflicting thoughts raced through her mind. She was terrified and excited at the same time, "what am I going to tell the girls?" and then at almost the same time she thought "they're going to have a father!"

She slowly opened one eye to take a peek at her man (Her Man!) and found herself looking at Sandy. Sometime during the night as they slept, Sandy came downstairs, joined them, and wiggled up between them. If Sandy were here, Madeline wouldn't be far away, and sure enough, she was sleeping between her and her man (Her Man!) too, her little blond head sticking out from the other end of the blanket.

Ok, first things first, she needs to warm up the cabin. It was still before sunrise, the only light in the cabin was from the two dim electric candles left on to provide light for the twins in case they got up. Andi slowly eased her way out from under the blankets and on to the chilly cabin floor where she almost landed on top of Wonka who was curled up next to the couch. He didn't even groan as she stumbled over him, he just curled up into a tighter ball. She crept over to the wood box and opened the door and the cold flowed from the wood box into the cabin. Moving as quickly and as quietly as she could, Andi grabbed several good-sized logs, pulled them into the cabin, and closed the wood box door.

She had seen Paul light the fire a couple of times, so she grabbed some newspaper from the kindling box and was starting to wad it up when a hand gently grabbed her wrist. She almost screamed but she was able to make out Paul's face near hers in the darkness. "Just put the wood in the stove," he whispered in her ear. She opened the stove's fire box and began to put the logs in. There was a charred log in there, so she piled the wood in, leaning it up against the charred log like she had seen Paul do in the past.

She closed the door and he whispered in her ear "Open the air intake and the ash pan door." She did both and he pulled her close and held her tight to keep her warm. "Watch," he said. Sure enough, there were some glowing embers on that charred log which started to glow brighter as oxygen freely entered the stove's fire box. The embers glowed warming the air around them, the warm air rose up the chimney drawing more oxygen in through the vents which fed the glowing embers which glowed even warmer creating an ever-accelerating cycle. Suddenly flames popped to life, and the light they produced flickered about the cabin.

Andi reached forward to close the ash pan door because Paul had previously told her to make sure it was closed, but now it was the main provider of oxygen in the young flames life and the moment she closed the door the flames died. Paul nudged her and she opened the door and in a moment the flames came back and continued to build. "You have to keep doing that," he whispered, "to determine when the fire is hot enough to survive with the door closed. You'll eventually learn to tell."

Soon enough the fire began to take on a sinister look, the flames grew hot and the fire began to roar. The flames no longer flickered and danced, they roared and shuddered as they devoured the fuel. Andi closed the ashpan door and the flames grew more subdued, but they started growing again. She leaned forward and adjusted the air vents and soon she was able to replicate the slow, delicate dancing flames that Paul sets in the firebox.

Andi signed and leaned back, basking in the warmth of her fiancé's embrace. "What are we going to do, Dr. Jarecki?" she said softly as she reached up and stroked his whiskers.

"I don't know about you, but I intend to keep my maiden name."

She gave him a quick elbow to the ribs which was returned by a kiss. "I'm serious. Are we really going to get married? What are we going to do?"

"God will provide," he whispered in her ear. "That idea to get married popped into both of our heads at the same time, I believe there is a meaning behind that. For now, let's just love each other and let the world worry about the details without letting it concern us."

Andi tensed, "We're not getting out of here today, are we?"

"No, and not tomorrow either. I think Sunday we can escape."

Andi was still tense. "Should we tell the kids? What should we do?"

Paul thought for a long moment, and while he pondered his next statement he began to nuzzle and kiss her neck sending thrills throughout her body. "Tell you what," he began, "let's spend the day today like we are already married, no announcements, we just go about today in a normal married life and watch the girls, see what they think."

"What if they hate us together? They've had me to themselves twenty-four seven for their entire lives." She watched the fire slowly gain strength and she turned down the air intake a little more, then leaned back so Paul could continue loving her neck. "I don't even know what normal married life is."

"Same here, a flight surgeon married to a fighter jock? Military life is not conducive to anything that could be labeled normal."

"Are you being kissy?" asked a small voice.

"Busted!" whispered Paul as he and Andi turned, and there was Sandy laying on the couch, watching them from under the blankets, her chin cupped in her tiny hands. "We were just talking; did we wake you girly girl?" asked Andi.

"No, Madeline woke me. She's like all "wake up! Mommy's getting kissy!" and I look and you're not! You're just being people." Sandy actually looked disappointed. "And then she stole Wonka! I wanted Wonka!"

Paul and Andi looked and sure enough, Madeline was curled up on the couch with Wonka, she wrapped herself around him like he was an oversized teddy bear. "Why are you down here?" Andi asked.

"Wonka was gone, an' I had to go potty. Did you break the couch? It's all flat."

"The couch folds down, now come on you two, it's back to bed with you," said Andi as she rose. She stood and scooped up Sandy and was pondering how she was going to lift Madeline, but Paul deftly scooped up the tiny girl who curled up in his arms smiling in her sleep.

"I like this house, we should move here," continued a sleepy Sandy as they ascended the stairs.

"Me too," muttered Madeline in her sleep. They were both completely asleep by the time they were laid side by side on the full bed.

"I should stay up here with them," whispered Andi.

"I understand," whispered Paul, and with a gentle kiss he headed back down the stairs. Down there he turned on the spotlight outside and watched the snow swirling outside for a while, then turned off the light and returned to the couch.

After tossing one more log in the wood stove he sat down on the edge of the couch and watched the fire for a while thinking of everything that has transpired in the past couple of days - so much! So fast! It was as if God had been saving up a bucket of blessings and poured them all out on Paul's head in one fell swoop. He said to himself "I can't wait to see what happens next," and laid down on the couch.

As he pulled the blanket up, he found the couch occupied by Andi. "Wonka evicted me," she said and snuggled up close to Paul. She rested her head on his shoulder and said sleepily "Missus Adrianna Jarecki, I like it. Let's do it." They were both asleep in minutes.

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It seemed like mere moments, but it was actually several hours later when the future Mrs. Adrianna Jarecki awoke to something she never saw before; sunlight streaming through the windows of Paul's cabin. She then felt a warm touch moving up her leg so soft and so gentle, she snuggled closer and purred in joy at the touch. She held his hand and smiled... but then she realized that she was laying her head on his right shoulder, his right arm was wrapped around her, and she was holding his left hand. She reached down and found that the gentle touch was coming from a tiny warm foot.

She rose up a little bit and realized that the twins had joined them again. Their little heads were at the far end, they brought their pillows down with them. Madeline had even brought her favorite stuffy with her, baby Kermit. Andi got up and filled a tea kettle with water and put it on the wood stove to warm up, then she sat down and fired up her laptop. She opened up messaging and saw that her best friend on earth was on-line, Dr. Evangeline L. Kocsis. Do not call her Evangeline, Eva, Eve, or Evie. To everyone she was Lucy, from her middle name Lucile. Lucy is a true Olympic caliber athlete, a cross country bicyclist and runner, she was in her glory in Colorado, training to go to the Olympics. On a bicycle tour called the Triple By-Pass Mini she was coming down Loveland Pass, eagerly looking forward to seeing Andi who was waiting for her with water in Georgetown.

Many career ending injuries are memorable but nowhere near as spectacular as the one that ended Lucy's Olympic dreams that year. Well placed in the field of 200, Lucy came down the east side of Loveland pass on US 6 and was gaining on the leaders when the chain on the bicycle ahead of her broke. It flew off of the derailleurs of the bicycle and shot straight for her front wheel where it tangled in her spokes then wrapped around her front fork. Every single one of her spokes snapped like match sticks, her forks dug down into the road and flipped her through the air. She sailed over the guard rail and down the rocky slope hitting rocks and trees and she finally came to a stop on US 6 that had looped back around 500 feet below the scene of her accident. Fortunately, she was unconscious when she hit the road, unfortunately she landed in a pack of riders causing 10 of her fellow competitors to collide. All of this was caught live on ESPN. She looked like a rag doll fired from a canon as she bounced down the cliff.

She spent 6 weeks in the hospital and the next 11 months living with Andi and her 7-month-old babies. Two broken arms, a fractured hip, 3 broken fingers, two dislocated shoulders and a cracked skull (bicycle helmets are not all that effective) not to mention cuts, bruises, scrapes, and a black eye. Together they were known as Raggedy Lucy and Raggedy Andi and they kept each other alive and sane for the next 3 years.

AndiGrls: Hi babe, how are you?

LucyK: Andi? OMG! Where r u? How r u? How r my babies? What happened?

AndiGrls: We'r OK, went off the road in a storm. We got rescued by a doctor who lives nearby. See attach

LucyK: Awwww, cute! Whos the dude?

AndiGrls: Dr. Paul Jarecki, LTC USAF RET

LucyK: You don't do anything halfway, do you

AndiGrls: Not if I can avoid it

LucyK: Well...?

AndiGrls: No. I set down the rules and he's obeyed them... damnit

LucyK: <3?

AndiGrls: <3 <3 <3 :-)

LucyK: I want to meet him

AndiGrls: be nice! He saved our lives and promised not to KMU

LucyK: OK, gotta scrub in, the ECMC knife and gun club is open for business. Luv U

AndiGrls: Luv U

As she closed out of the messaging program, Andi felt Paul's large hands encircle her full round breasts. He began to gently squeeze and heft her large boobs and her breath caught from the sudden sensation, she almost cried out but she didn't dare for fear of waking the girls. She felt her nipples harden, and he noticed it too, and his thumbs and forefingers soon began pinching and twisting her nipples. "Oh God, didn't you get enough last night?"

"Oh hell no, especially where you're concerned."

"Good Answer!" she leaned her head back and their lips met, and as soon as they did her tongue slithered into his mouth. She drove her tongue in and out, surprising and delighting him. He began sucking on her tongue, teasing it with his tongue as if it were a cock all the while pinching and twisting her nipples through her flannel nightgown. When their kiss finally broke, she curled her arm around his neck and beckoned him close. He bent lower and she whispered into his ear the delights of kinky foreplay she has planned for tonight, punctuated with a gentle probing of his ear with her tongue.

"Maybe we should head upstairs," he said softly.

"No, look at them, they're watching us."

Sure enough, Paul could see the twinkle of their dark brown eyes as they tried to hide under blankets and behind pillows. "Yeah, they're homing in on every word we say." He noticed that they now tried to make themselves more invisible, pulling the blankets over their faces and scrunching down into the couch cushions. "Here, stand up a second," he said.

Andi stood and Paul sat in the office chair, then tugged Andi into his lap. "There, now..." he turned the chair so the twins could see their faces perfectly. "... I love you," he said and gave Andi a little kiss on the lips.

Andi smiled and said "I love you..." then gave Paul a kiss on his lips. At that moment the twins sprang out from under their blankets and ran to their mommy yelling "Yaaaaaa!" as they ran. They crashed into Paul's hip laughing and giggling as they came behind his desk.

"You're being kissy with my mom!" accused Sandy

"Yeah, kissy!" Madeline was there for backup.

"Well yeah, because my favorite lovebugs were asleep."

"Bug bug!"

"Bug bug!"

Paul bent over and said, "I love you, and I love you." With each I love you he gave each girl a kiss on the cheek, and both responses were as different as night and day. Madeline's face broke into a blissful smile as if she were just handed a sleeping puppy and she hugged Paul's leg, Sandy on the other hand ran in circles rubbing her cheek shouting "Boy germs! Boy germs!"

Paul was almost in shock at the difference in their reactions to Paul's kiss, but Andi expected it. In reality their feelings were probably the same, it was the way they expressed their feelings that showed the difference in the two. As Madeline looked up at Paul with adoring eyes Paul said "Well, at least one of you likes me."

Madeline's little hand shot up like she was answering a question in school, "Me!"

Sandy sat on a chair at the table with her arms crossed and her brow furrowed, "Boys are yucky."

Andi got up from Paul's lap and Madeline immediately climbed up to take her place. "Believe it or not, they probably feel the same way, they just show it differently," said Andi.

"You can't get much different," agreed Paul.

"Sandy doesn't hold back, but the girls in daycare have decided that boys are yucky..."

"Dixie's brother Melvin!" shouted Sandy.

"...like Dixie's brother Melvin, and use your indoor voice little one," Andi finished sternly.

"Sorry."

"So, Sandy will act out the way that her peers will act out. If she really didn't like you, you'd know. It takes some practice but really, it's not hard to figure out what is Sandy being silly and Sandy being Sandy. Madeline, on the other hand, is my little scientist," Andi walked over to the couch and began to fold the blankets. "She's quite skeptical and normally doesn't take anything at face value, however when she shows her emotions it's the real deal."

Paul stood and came out from behind the desk with Madeline cradled by his right arm, her arms around his neck. "I love you Doctor Paul," she whispered and kissed his cheek. Suddenly Sandy was standing in front of him, her arms stretched upwards, her little hands opening and closing, her face a mask of sorrowful longing. He crouched down and scooped her up and she wrapped herself tightly around him and kissed his other cheek.

Paul hugged them close and kissed each one again on the cheek. Andi stood smiling and the look on her face should have warned Paul that she was expecting something, and it started with another kiss from Madeline. A moment later Sandy kissed Paul's cheek, then Madeline responded with another kiss, then Sandy, then Madeline, back and forth, faster and faster. Before he knew it, his face was drenched with child slobber and the twins were laughing uproariously and Andi was video recording the entire episode with her phone.

As quickly as it started it was over. The twins pushed outward, and Sandy simply said "Down."

"What, you're leaving me?" asked Paul.

"Potty," said Madeline as Paul set them down, and that was it, they strode off purposefully toward the bathroom.

"You knew that was going to happen," said Paul with a grin as he advanced on Andi.

"No!" said Andi laughing and holding up a folded blanket as a shield, "I didn't know!" The blanket didn't deter Paul, he held Andi close and rubbed his child saliva covered cheeks against hers as she squawked in protest. She finally stopped him by holding his head still and placing her lips on his. They were still kissing when the twins finished their trip to the potty and headed up the stairs, stamping their bare little feet all the way up.

"I think they want breakfast," said Paul as their lips parted.

"I want something to put in my mouth too," said Andi with a wink and a grin.

"I can whip something up for you," he responded with an equally lecherous grin, "but for the girls... all I have for them to drink is some dried milk. It's not much for drinking but it's good for cooking... no wait - I have dutch process powdered chocolate for baking, I can make some instant hot chocolate."

Twenty minutes later the girls were seated at the table, each child had a huge slab of French toast crowned with a pool of melted locally made butter and maple syrup that came from a sugar shack just a few miles away and a steaming mug of hot cocoa. Both Andi and Paul had poached eggs perched atop a thick slice of toast from the same homemade loaf Paul used to make the twins' French toast.

"Is this the bread the girls made?" asked Andi as she buttered a slice of toast.

"It sure is," answered Paul.

"So good," muttered Madeline around a mouth packed full of French toast.

Sandy licked syrup off of her fingers, "Makes the syrup taste better!"

"These eggs are addictive!" exclaimed Andi as she sopped up the creamy dark orange yolk with a bit of toast. "Where did they come from?"

"Not far," said Paul, gesturing toward the large barn. They had agreed not to mention Paul's chickens until the weather improved enough to allow the twins to walk over to the barn. "Their feed resembles what they would eat if they were uncaged in the wild." That meant that there were many different grains, seeds, and meat in their feed. To the twins he said, "What do we have to do today?"

"I don't know," answered Sandy, then her face brightened, "Cartoons?"

"Lessons," said Andi.

"YouTube?" chirped Madeline brightly.

"Lessons," said Andi, her eyebrows lowered.

Sandy and Madeline started tapping their forks on their plate, "Les-sons! Les-sons! Les-sons!"

Paul started collecting plates and silverware, "While you study physics, I'll be in the barn sharpening my hammer."

"Can we do physics?" asked Sandy, "Alphabets are so boring. Zee, why, ex, double you, vee, tea, ess, are, que, pea, oh, en, em, el, kay, jay, eye, aich, gee, eff, eee, dee, sea, bee, aye."

"I wanna do physics too," added Madeline, "we already read all the Doctor Seuss books," then she and Sandy started chanting

"Not in a box. Not with a fox.

Not in a house. Not with a mouse.

I would not eat them here or there.

I would not eat them anywhere.

I would not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."

They finished the final "Sam-I-Am" looking straight at each other, their noses barely an inch apart. Paul was in complete shock, he had just heard a five-year-old recite the entire alphabet backwards, and then she and her sister just recited a good portion of Green Eggs And Ham from memory.

"Is physics numbers? I like numbers," said Madeline.

"Oh yeah? What's eleventy four plus seven?" said Paul trying to bait the twins. Both toddlers just glared at him from behind lowered eyebrows. "Ok then," he continued, "what is twenty-five times sixteen?"

"Four hundred" the girls called out before he could complete saying 'sixteen.'

Paul's eyes practically bugged out of his head and he finally said "I think I need to go sharpen that hammer," and he took the dishes he had collected and turned toward the kitchen. Andi reached up and handed him a slip of paper, "Here's a few things we're going to need when we can get out of here."

As Paul tucked the note in his shirt pocket the girls started chanting "Phys-ics! Phys-ics! Phys-ics!"

"Thank you dear," said Andi glaring at Paul who blew her a kiss and went to wash the dishes and left Andi to explain to the girls that physics aren't really a pre-school subject and are best left for kindergarten or maybe even first grade.

He washed the breakfast dishes, then dried them and put them away, then he collected a few tools that should have been put away earlier, grabbed his coat, gloves and hat. In the older cabin he stoked the fire and prepared to step outside. He kissed Andi's cheek as she helped the girls with their words that start with the letter V and headed outside.

The sky had been sunny during breakfast but now it clouded up again and the dark clouds coming in from Lake Erie promised a lot more snow. According to AccuWeather there will be a lot more snow over the next day or two. In the barn he hung the tools on the pegboard where they belong, then fired up the Kubota. Currently it was configured with a drag plow on back, so he opened the barn doors and he headed out. After connecting the bucket to the front arms, he headed out toward the road, drag plowing the driveway as he went.

For almost two hours he plowed the driveway and using the bucket he moved the snow off of Trevett road for about 30 feet in each direction, that way when the county plowed Trevett there wouldn't be snow on the street that could be plowed up the driveway blocking his access. Several years ago, the county plows blocked his driveway with snow so bad he couldn't open the security gate at the end of the driveway until he dug the gate out by hand.

Returning to the barn he uncoupled the bucket and connected to the big plow. He shut down the tractor, went into the barn, and brought out a pair of 5 gallon jerry cans of gasoline and topped off the Kubota's fuel tank, then he made a quick visit to the chickens and came back with ten eggs which he carried in a large shop rag. He left the eggs in the kitchen, he entered and left through the door on the new cabin, rather than going through the main entrance on the old cabin and disturbing their lessons. He climbed on the Kubota and he almost got it into gear when Andi stepped out of the main door wrapped in a blanket. He hopped off the tractor and ran over to Andi.

"Running off to go drinking with the boys? Is a night out at the pool hall too important than kissing your wife goodbye?" she smiled as she said all that. As he wrapped his arms around her she nibbled at his ear lobe reminding him of the promises she made a few hours ago.

"It's Friday, I'm going to the bowling alley, the pool hall is Tuesdays and Thursdays." He gave her a warm kiss and she molded herself into his arms. "How are the kids doing?"

"Fine, they're doing their math work now, adding and subtracting three-digit numbers."

"No shi... I uh... really? Wow I'm impressed."

Andi grinned, "I'm freezing and you're going to miss the first frame, get going."

"I love you Missus Jarecki."

"I love being Missus Jarecki."

He went over to Josh Gravely's camp across the street and cleared out his driveway. An hour later he backed into his barn... correction... his and Andi's barn. He backed into their barn leaving the plow attached and shut down the Kubota, closed up the barn doors, then sat down on his work stool at the work bench. He pulled out his Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipe, packed it full of Captain Black and proceeded to enjoy a quiet smoke. He didn't inhale, he just enjoyed the flavor and the entire ceremony of packing, lighting, and keeping it lit. Yes, the occasional smoke ring too. He reached over and turned on his short-wave radio and tried to tune to a station that he knew was on the air in Louisiana.

Andi had the girls drawing and cutting out Christmas angels out of construction paper for their Christmas tree when she heard the tractor come in. When Paul didn't come in the cabin, she had the girls continue their cutting with their little plastic safety scissors and she pulled on a coat and walked out to the barn. Entering the side door, she was greeted with the smells of men at work, oil and lubricants, tractor exhaust, old wood, dirt, hay, chicken, and... pipe tobacco. Her eyes softened when she smelled that sweet, nostalgic scent, then she heard it; the hiss and whistle of high frequency static joined by the weak but readable voices from far, far away. Tears spilled from her eyes as she dodged around the gray and red ford tractor and sprinted to the man. "Daddy?"

At the sound of her call Paul turned and saw Andi dashing toward him, tears flowing from her eyes as she called out "Daddy!" He caught her in his arms and held her tight as she shuddered and wept for her father who left so long ago and never came back. She wanted to cry "Don't never go away again daddy, please don't go."

He couldn't console her; it was two and a half decades of misery and sorrow that she kept bottled up now exploding forth. He held her as the dam broke and the sadness gushed out, yet as she cried she was also smiling. At one time she was both a sad, heartbroken child whose father will never return from Iraq and a grown woman who joyfully found that her new fiancé shared many of the qualities that endeared the first man she ever loved to her.

Finally, the sobs subsided, and she was left with a feeling of fond nostalgia for the old garage where her dad worked on his cars and lawnmowers, where he would play with his radios and where he enjoyed his smelly old pipes.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, it was just overwhelming. My dad had a garage, and a pipe, and even a radio, and it just hit..." she sniffed, "I miss him so much... still."

"It's not silly, I know you realize that I can't replace him, and I'm not trying to come between you and your memories of him. I just hope you're not calling me Daddy because of this."

"No, of course not. I think I call you daddy because that's what my mom called my dad, and she was so happy back then." Andi's expression turned sad again, then she wiped her runny nose on his sleeve.

"Hey! What's up with that?"

"Mom always told me that it was impolite to wipe my nose on my sleeve... she didn't say anything about yours," and she twisted out of Paul's arm and darted for the door before she became overwhelmed again. Paul chuckled, relit his pipe, then straightened up the work bench. He checked on the chickens, topped off their feeders and changed out the dirty straw. Then heading out of the barn he noticed an old toboggan leaning against the wall, leaning there it stood eight feet tall, the old leather cushions were still in place... it was cold but not real cold... why not?

He walked into the cabin and the girls were coloring their paper angels. "Do you want to build a snowman?" he asked.

"Do you want to build a snowman..." the twins sang without looking up from their coloring.

"No really, do you want to go outside and build a snowman?"

That stopped Sandy and Madeline in their tracks. They looked at Paul like he had just offered them a ride on a unicorn. "Really?" they gasped. "Out of real snow?"

"Well, only regular snow. I don't think we have any of the magical kind of snow here, he won't be able to dance."

They started hopping up and down in front of Andi "Can we mom? Can we? Can we?"

As Paul and Andi dressed the girls in their snow gear Andi looked at Paul suspiciously, "Is there a method to this madness?"

"A little fresh air and exercise and they'll sleep like babes tonight," he grinned.

"I like the way you think," she gave him a peck on the cheek. He revealed a few of his other ideas and she said, "Only if you're careful!"

"I'm always careful!" insisted Paul, "mostly."

Andi gave Paul a rundown on "Hurricane Sandy" and her Greatest Hits as they headed outside to make a snowman. He was in stitches listening to the rundown of Sandy's accidents.

The snow in western New York is much different than the snow in Denver and the Colorado Rockies. In Colorado the snow is dry and so cold you can't make a snowball out of it, it doesn't "pack" so there's no way to make a snowball, let alone a snowman. In the Buffalo area the snow is warmer and packs just fine. Most of the year Buffalo doesn't get much snow, except for the occasional lake effect blizzard, however down in the "Snow Belt" region they get plenty of snow, and that's right were Andi and her babies were right now.

Paul started the snowman the traditional way, making a big ball of snow then rolling it around on the ground to gather more snow. That works to a point, eventually the snowball gets so big and so heavy you can't move it anymore. "Here's what we have to do now guys," said Paul, "we grab bunches of snow, and we stick it to the ball, then we smooth it out. Can we do that?"

"Yeah!" and the girls were soon busy gathering armloads of snow and piling it on the ball that Paul had rolled up for them. He and Andi sculpted the snow into a large ball as the laughing little girls brought more and more snow.

Soon he started to roll a second ball, and when almost too heavy to lift, he hoisted it up on top of the first ball. Before too long a head was added and Andi arrived with a steel pail full of shiny black rocks. "What are these?" asked Madeline as she held a golf ball sized "Black Diamond" in her mitten.

"These are lumps of coal. Doctor Paul got them in his Christmas stocking when he was your age."

"And we were glad for them!" responded Paul as he fixed tree branch arms to the snowman.

While Andi and the twins arranged the coal eyes, mouth, and buttons, Paul put Wonka back in the cabin and went over to the barn, set up the toboggan, and started up the Yamaha snowmobile. The twins came running and he showed them how to sit safely and hold on to the side ropes. Andi sat behind the girls, Paul connected the tow rope to the snowmobile and off they went at a breakneck 5 MPH.

He took them back through the snow-covered fields, back to the pond, now covered in snow. He showed them were the "beach" was and promised they could go swimming in the summer. Then he showed them his favorite spot on the pond, there was a large tree there and he said it was the best place to go fishing, because you could nap there all day and the fish wouldn't bother you. As they passed the dock Sandy jumped off the toboggan and intended to run out onto the dock, but instead she immediately sank in the snow up past her waist. Luckily Paul was watching so he stopped right away, and Andi pulled her out and set her back on the toboggan with an admonishment to stay in place.

Paul took them back to where the trees meet the pond and Paul told them that back in the trees was where his brother John and his wife Macy liked to go camping. They had a clearing back in the trees and an outhouse was built there.

"What's that?" asked Madeline.

"It's an outhouse," said Andi, "it's where you go potty when you're camping."

After a short chat with her sister in TwinBabble® Madeline called out "I wanna go potty!"

Paul slowly eased through the pine trees heading deeper and deeper into the woods, finally they entered a clearing and pulled up to the outhouse at the end of the clearing. He shut off the engine and silence covered the woods like a heavy blanket. The only sound was the whispered chatter of the twins discussing something in TwinBabble®. Andi, not wishing to break the silent reverie whispered to Madeline "What are you talking about?"

"It's a unicorn forest!" whispered Madeline. To the twins, everything of beauty was tied in some way to unicorns or princesses.

"There should be a castle here," whispered Sandy. "Can Doctor Paul build us a castle here?

"I'm sure he would if you asked him nicely," said Andi, "after we get back to the big cabin." She added that part to prevent the twins from jumping off the toboggan in a rampage to beg Paul for a castle.

Just then Madeline's eyes popped wide open and her jaw dropped. She wordlessly pointed to where she wanted her castle built and there was a beautiful 10-point Whitetail buck. The buck stepped up to the edge of the clearing and stood looking off into the distance, he never even looked at the small family, he was concentrating on something he could hear or smell that they could not. Then, without acknowledging the presence of the humans, he turned and disappeared among the trees.

"That's the king of the forest!" gasped Sandy.

Madeline stood on the toboggan, looked around at the enchanted forest one last time then announced, "Ok, I'm cold, let's go back," and sat down.

"I thought you guys said you had to go potty," exclaimed Andi.

"We said we wanna go, not hadda go. Now we're here. Time to go," said Sandy as she turned around sitting backwards facing Madeline and grabbed the ropes.

Paul watched with amusement trying to discern 5-year-old logic, but Andi took this in stride making Paul realize there is so much more to these twins than just their cuteness. He has a lot to learn. But he gestured to Andi that Sandy had to turn around and face front, "You need to see the bumps coming," he called out. Andi got the girls situated, both facing forward and holding the ropes, then Paul fired up the motor and headed back to the cabin.

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At dinner that evening the twins said a prayer for grace that Paul taught them while they "helped" him cook dinner and set the table. When everyone was seated Paul said "Girls, are you going to say grace?"

They looked confused for a moment, then suddenly remembered what they had been practicing for the past hour. "Oh yeah!" said Sandy.

"Everyone hold hands!" ordered Madeline sternly. As everyone joined hands, then the twins bowed their little heads and repeated the mantra that small children have been saying for generations;

God is gracious

God is good

Let us thank Him for our food

Yaaaay - God!

"That was very good!" exclaimed Andi, "Did doctor Paul help you with that?"

"He taught us while we cooked," said Madeline as she nodded her head, then she

"Let's eat, I'm staaaaarrrrving!" exclaimed Sandy holding up her empty plate. Madeline lifted hers too and whimpered "food please."

"My goodness, everything looks wonderful! Did you help make all this?" exclaimed Andi. "What all do we have?"

"Wild turkey chest, smashed beans... no, smash potatoes, and sweet and French beans!" said Madeline proudly.

"And gravy! I made the gravy!" said Sandy proudly.

"Close enough, but that's sweet and sour French cut green beans. And they did help, they did most of the stirring. They're really good at stirring, I may throw away my blender," said Paul as he dished out Madeline's plate and cut up her meat while Andi did the same for Sandy.

Andi thought the dinner was incredible, the turkey had so much more flavor than domestic turkey, "It's a bit gamey, but it's like concentrated turkey! These beans they're incredible! What did you do to them?"

"It's just a quick and easy recipe to make canned beans more appetizing, some bacon, some onions, some vinegar and a touch of sugar."

"Some dill too?" asked Andi as she tasted some more of the beans.

Paul grinned. "My family lived out of dented cans for years, so you learn ways to spice things up cheap. Mom always taught us that there's no need to buy vinegar because you get a whole lot of vinegar for free in a jar of pickles. So, in my house and in John's house there's always a jar of pickle juice in the fridge because the foods we grew up with were flavored with pickle juice."

Andi watched in amazement as her girls cleaned their plates, then asked for more beans. "You must have got hungry making a snowman!" both girls nodded enthusiastically.

"I also mentioned that little girls who clean their plates get to watch the Peanuts Christmas and Frosty the Snowman tonight," added Paul. Madeline and Sandy nodded their heads vigorously.

Finally, the twins held their plates up for inspection, something Andi has never seen before. "They're up to something" a little voice in her head warned her. "Good job girls let me get the dishes washed and put away and we can watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special," said Paul as he took their dishes into the kitchen. They even helped clear the table. Andi was sure she was going to suffer shock, her girls even helped feed Wonka.

Finally, the family had gathered on the couch and the painting folded up, Paul threw a couple of birch logs on the fire and replaced the front window on the stove with a fire screen, then adjusted the flu and the air valves so the fire burned properly. Now the scent of the burning birch, almost a woodsy perfume, filled the cabin and the hiss and snap could be heard clearly. During the commercial break leadup to the start of the show, Sandy and Madeline hopped up in front of Paul and Sandy said "Doctor Paul? Will you please make us a princess castle in the unicorn woods where we saw the Forest King today?"

Paul didn't wait for a moment, "Of course darlings, but we will have to wait for the snow to melt and the ground to dry up, and you have to help build it, ok? But it also has to be ok with your mom."

The twins looked at each other, then they looked at their mom. Paul could tell that she was going to mention that they probably were not going to be there much longer, but she also saw the look of hopeful expectation in Paul's eyes too. She then realized that the path she had charted for her life was once again spinning out of her control and the only thing she could do is roll with it. Besides, the twins will probably not remember their princess castle in a month's time. She took a calming breath and said, "You have to really help Doctor Paul, do everything he says."

"We will, mommy."

"You know that you're going to get really dirty working in the forest, you're going to have to take baths every night."

"We will mommy."

"And you have to do everything Doctor Paul says."

"And my brother Pastor John, and his wife Pastor Macy," interjected Paul.

"Pastor?" mouthed Andi soundlessly, to which Paul mouthed "Later."

"We will mommy."

"Then if it's ok with Doctor Paul, this summer you will have a princess castle." The twins took this news with exuberant squeals and cheers, hopping up and down, clapping their hands and chanting "thank you, thank you, thank you!" followed by a round of hugs and kisses for both mom and Doctor Paul.

"Staying?" mouthed Paul soundlessly, to which Andi mouthed "Later."

Eventually the girls calmed down and climbed up on Andi and Paul's laps and settled down to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, now well over 50 years old, and both Paul and Andi have seen it almost every Christmas season they could remember in their lives. With a few exceptions Paul could remember all the different countries where he was stationed when he saw it overseas: Germany, Japan, Spain, Korea, all courtesy of AFN, the Armed Forces Network.

Andi and Paul sat close and whispered and snuggled as the show progressed, until at one point Sandy complained "You guys kiss too loud!"

"Kissy, kissy, kissy," agreed Madeline.

Madeline started to nod off during Charlie Brown but woke up when Frosty came on. For some reason Paul despised Frosty the Snowman. It wasn't Jimmy Durante's narration; it was a combination of Jackie Vernon's Frosty and the Rankin/Bass production. He always found Rankin/Bass animation mind numbing and cheap. One of the things he and his brother could agree on through the years was that the Rankin/Bass artwork in a Rankin/Bass produced cartoon was on par with a preschoolers coloring book. That's saying a lot if a pair of young boys still in elementary school thought it was that bad. The twins apparently agreed because they were asleep halfway through the show.

"Bedtime?" he asked.

"Looks like it," Andi smiled and shifted Sandy so she could stand up with her sleeping child.

Paul pulled her close and whispered, "I love you more than I've ever known I was capable of feeling."

Andi gave him a sweet gentle kiss that left his mind spinning and his heart racing and she said "I feel the exact same way darling. Give me a couple of minutes to get the beds ready then bring up Madeline. Ok?" He replied with a kiss that he hoped was every bit as tender and as loving as the one he just received.

Once Andi was up the stairs (followed by Wonka) Paul turned off the TV and turned on the stereo softly, this time some soft jazz Christmas music, the GRP collection. Lit only by the Christmas tree and the fire Paul relaxed with Madeline in his arms and reflecting on how his life had suddenly changed from one of drudgery verging on the edge of mechanical boredom to one of boundless joy. For years, the only thing that kept him from going back into the woods and blowing his head off was his sister-in-law Macy. She was the one that convinced him to buy the old Sprague estate, then to build this cabin where the old farmhouse once sat, then to enlarge the pond and later to put in the docks and beach. It was these projects that kept his mind off of his loneliness and despair.

And now he sat with the cutest little girl he could ever imagine; his life was suddenly filled with a joy he could never have dreamed possible. Even when married to Melony he never...

"Doctor Paul?"

"Yes dear."

Madeline opened those perfect blue eyes and said, "Will you be my daddy?"

"I've never had kids before; I wouldn't know how to do it."

"Dixie and Melvin have a dad and he doesn't know nothing."

"We'll see about getting you a daddy, ok?"

"Ok, but I think you should marry mommy too."

"Why do you think that little one?"

"Because she smiles a lot when you kiss."

"I'll talk to your mom and see what she says, ok?" Paul started to stand up.

"Mommy will like that," said Madeline as she drifted back to sleep in her future daddy's arms.

After tucking the sleeping girls in bed and making sure that Wonka didn't leap up and wake them, Paul and Andi quietly made their way down the stairs into the main room of the cabin. Andi thought again that this room brought to mind a magical, masculine Christmas wonderland. It was all the Germanic Christmas traditions were distilled and put into action in this room. All Paul needs is a brick fireplace and a Christmas themed wooden cuckoo clock.

"Madeline tells me that she would like a father, and she nominated me for that position."

"Oh she did, huh?" asked Andi as she stood between Paul and the fire.

"She also said I should marry you, and that you'd like that."

"I got the same request from Sandy upstairs. She thinks you would enjoy the idea tremendously."

"She said tremendously?" asked Paul raising an eyebrow.

"She said "lots" but you get the idea."

"Let me show you how much I'd like it," said Paul with a lecherous grin and he reached up and opened the oversized grey robe that Andi was wearing. Instead of the unflattering flannel nightgown she had been wearing, Andi was completely naked under the robe. Paul's breath caught in his throat, he pulled Andi into his lap, and he eased the robe off her shoulders exposing her lovely body to the flickering candlelight. The color and intensity of the light complimented her body perfectly. He cupped her round, perfect breasts and began to suckle on a hard nipple causing Andi to throw her head back and gasp at the pleasure he brought to her. His mouth and his fingers played over her body like a finely tuned instrument. Her hisses and gasps of pleasure filled the air as his hands roamed freely, exploring from her neck to the delightful crack between her round ass cheeks.

Finely Andi could no longer hold back and she leaned close and said, "I'm going to wake the girls. Let's move to the showers."

Paul sadly handed her the robe but she refused to get up. He stood and she locked her ankles behind his back and put her hands around his neck. She was so small this wasn't a problem at all. Cupping her marvelous ass he lovingly carried her back to the shower area.

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Paul carried Andi with the delicacy of a fragile porcelain doll, he was terrified that if he held her too tight she would shatter yet at the same time if he held her too loosely she would disappear. She was so light, she felt like nothing in his arms. They kissed as he carried her through the kitchen area of the new cabin and into the shower/sauna area. Not having a bedroom to which they could retreat, this was the only place they could reasonably expect privacy should one or both of the twins wake up and go exploring.

"Daddy, honey, you're trembling! What's the matter?"

Paul felt like he was just busted by a sex-role enforcement officer. He was supposed to be a suave, debonair symbol of male virility and he was trembling like a 15-year-old girl on her first date. "I'm nervous baby, I'm so terrified that if I do something wrong, you'll walk out on me and..."

"Daddy, oh sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere. I know I've only known you for a few hours, but there's nothing you can do to hurt me more than FuckingFrank hurt me..."

Paul suddenly felt panic welling up in his breast. "Baby I..."

She silenced him with a finger to his lips. "I am yours, heart and soul, spirit and body. I want you; I want you to raise my daughters with me, I want to bear you a son. You're not going to break me, and I know you're not going to rape me."

"But I came so close last night!"

"I know daddy," she pressed her lips to his, "and I wanted you to so bad, I almost did it myself when I was sliding my pussy on you. God it felt so good! I wasn't being fair to you; can you forgive me?"

"If you're going to cum like that every time you slide your pussy up and down my cock, then yes, I will forgive you and encourage you because you did a good job getting me off also." He looked down at the angel in his arms with such love and compassion that Andi suddenly realized he wasn't merely loving her, he was worshiping her and this was bad.

"Daddy, I need you to know something right now. I haven't always been the good doctor Andi. In fact, I've been a very naughty girl. You will meet people who knew me in Pre-Med when I was pretty wild, I mean really wild. Two or three guys a week wild, what will you say to them?"

"I'll say "that was then, this is now."

She felt exasperated and confused because for some reason she felt a need to push him away right now. "Ok, say you came home and found me shtuping myself with a big dildo?"

"Bigger than me?"

"I mean it, what would you say?"

"I would probably say nothing and enjoy the show," he grinned and sat her on a plastic stool off to the side and began to undress. "Maybe I'd join in, I'm not adverse to you masturbating." He leaned over and gave her a kiss then said, "You are so hot, it would be beautiful, and let's face it, I don't have a lot of years left."

"Don't talk like that," she moan. "Masturbating has been my sex life for six years now, and I'm very good at it."

"Same here, maybe we'll play a duet sometime."

"Oh you!" she pulled him down for a kiss, he always seems to say the right thing. "Get undressed." First, he peeled off his shirt, then shoes and socks, then as he was about to unbuckle his belt, he felt her hands brush his away. "No, this part is mine," she said. With a grin that promised a wonderful evening she began to unbuckle his belt.

She unfastened the button and unzipped the fly, then grabbing his jeans and underwear she pulled down his pants which caused his cock to spring up and hit her in the jaw. She put her hand on her chin and laughed in surprise. "I've been smacked in the mouth, but I've never been dick slapped before!"

They kissed and hugged as they waited for the water heater to warm up, she sat on his lap waiting for the red light to come on and she confessed, "I really was wild, Frank used to make me walk through the casino in Blackhawk Colorado in a very skimpy dress wearing a metallic red wig, or white or shock pink and wearing sunglasses. Then I'd go up to our room and he'd tie me down, blindfold me and fuck me. Most of the time that was when he was at his best."

"Do you like being tied down?"

"Yeah, I even enjoyed showing off my tits in disguise, but Frank was such a pig it wasn't fun after a while."

"I can't complain about Melony, but she didn't like blowjobs," then he frowned. "At least with me she said she didn't like blowjobs."

"You have a big dick," said Andi. "That takes some getting used to. That was probably her issue." Paul mentally kicked himself about bringing up his ex, he knew why she didn't like to suck his dick, he didn't fly F-15s.

The water heater was ready and they entered the shower and rinsed down, then they soaped each other gently, soapy hands sliding over trembling flesh. Andi's soapy hands slid up and down Paul's throbbing cock. "Our talk got you hot," she grinned as pre-cum oozed from his cock.

"I was thinking of you walking through the casino with your tits and pussy almost visible then watching you fuck yourself with a big dildo."

"Sounds like a fun honeymoon," she said with a grin which caused Paul to laugh. They rinsed the soap off, Andi's eyes softened, and she sank to her knees. "I love blowjobs," she whispered and slowly began to suck on Paul's cock. Her tongue swirled around and around the head of his cock as her hands slid up and down the shaft and soon she took the head of his cock into her mouth. Paul groaned in appreciation, the feel of her soft lips and tongue was mind blowing, one of the best sensations he's ever felt. "Let's move into the sauna," she said as she pulled his cock out of her mouth.

They moved into the small sauna, not for the heat and steam but for the privacy, in here they could scream as loud as they wanted and the twins wouldn't hear them... hopefully.

She sat on the upper deck of the seats and Paul sat on the lower level and lowered his mouth to her pussy. "Oh gawd Paul..." she whimpered as his tongue began to dance over her clit, and now he began to suckle her clit while two fingers eased into her pussy. The feeling was incredible, his mouth sucking and his tongue flicking her clit while his fingers pushed deep into her... deeper... then he curled his fingers and began massaging a spot deep inside which suddenly drove her out of her mind. She went from hot to volcanic in a matter of moments with his tongue making love to her clit, his fingers fucking and wiggling in and out, his little finger dancing at the tight pore of her anus.

Andi found her fingers winding in his hair, she no longer controlled her voice as she babbled and cried and suddenly her orgasm was on her, washing over her with the force of a firehose. Her mind went completely blank as the incredible pleasure blanketed her mind. All she could remember doing was pushing Paul away, it was too intense, too good.

Her mind returned to her body and she found herself laying on the lower benches, her head in Paul's lap, his hand lazily stroking her side and brushing against her ass. "Oh gawd," she gasped. "That was... wow, did you do that?"

"What was the power of us," he said with a smile.

She rolled on to her back and looked up into his ocean blue eyes. His hand lazily wandered back to her pussy and she grabbed it and moved it to her breast. "Let me get my head screwed back on," she said as the room continued to spin. "You can kill a girl with that tongue mister!" She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed his fingers and as she did she felt that orgasm coming back. Another wave of immense sexual pleasure began to wash over her and she rolled to her side. "Uuunnghh..." she groaned as the mini tsunami hit and her leg started shaking. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped his hand in a death grip as the feeling washed over her, then after a couple of minutes it subsided.

She slowly opened her eyes and saw the sauna's ceiling spinning above her. "What the hell was that?"

Paul shrugged, "aftershock?"

Andi took a deep breath and said, "do not operate motor vehicles or heavy equipment for at least one hour after sex with my husband." For the very first time in her life she was excited to say, 'my husband.' He laughed and arched over and she leaned up for a deep, loving kiss. This was the greatest sex she's ever had in her life, and it was fun! She had never considered sex to be fun before, but this was incredible.

Breaking the kiss she rolled over and found his cock waiting for her, hard and throbbing, precum oozing down the shaft indicating that he was ready for her. She ran her tongue up and down his shaft, his offering was tart and salty, not horrible at all. She then nibbled on the underside of his pole, little loving nips at his sensitive flesh and he threw his head back and groaned. "Don't ever stop," he muttered as his hand stroked her flesh, encouraging her.

She began to suck his balls gently as her hand stroked his cock. "That's so good," he hissed as she suckled and tongued his balls, first one then the other. She rearranged herself and began kneeling on the floor in front of him and smiled up at him, then she slowly, teasingly lowered her mouth onto his cock.

It was so good! The sensation of her warm, wet mouth swallowing him was incredible. Her head moved up and down as she sucked and swallowed taking a little bit more of his cock every time. The constant warm wet friction was utter bliss. He groaned as she worried on his cock, her tongue was never still, it was constantly moving over his sensitive. She was driving him mad with this blowjob, she was hitting every nerve ending that was capable of setting him off. He looked down at her as she swallowed his cock, over and over.

He held her hair so it wouldn't block his view of the greatest blowjob he's ever had. She looked up at him and suddenly he froze, Melony hated being watched and let him know it almost every time she lowered herself to sucking him. But somehow Andi grinned around his cock and winked at him! She went back to sucking him with a fervor. The sound of her slurping and sucking on him filled the little sauna and Paul groaned, "Oh Andi..."

"What?" She looked up at him and stroked his cock.

"I'm going out of my mind; I can't hold back..."

"Don't you dare hold back on me," and she went back to his cock sucking vigorously, driving him out of his mind. With a growl he pulled her off his cock and laid her back on the floor and in a flash he was kneeling between her legs. Their eyes met and there was an understanding, a moment of pure, passionate agreement and her knees came up. She reached between them and lined the head of his cock with her pussy.

"Fuck me," she whispered, and Paul eased into her. His cock pierced her as their eyes remained lock on each other's as he penetrated his beautiful little fiancée. Deeper and deeper into her warm, moist pussy and she groaned in pleasure. "So good," she hissed and as his groin pressed into hers she brought her little feet up onto his back and said, "fuck me."

And he did just that. The moment of love and romance became a moment of sheer rut as he began fucking. Stroke after stroke he pummeled her pussy and all she could do was hang on for the ride. She intentionally drove him crazy with that blowjob and now she's reaping the results. "Yes! Harder!" she egged him on. The sound of their bodies slapping together filled the sauna, her juices flowed and was covering them.

Their sweat and saliva mingled as he fucked her to another glorious orgasm. It hit without warning and she planted her feet on the floor and lifted he ass up, meeting his strokes and feeling him penetrating deeper. "SHIT!" she shrieked as the orgasm flashed through her mind causing convulsions to wrack her body. She clawed at his back and began to urge him to "Cum for me."

"Do you want me to cum in your pussy?"

The thought almost caused another orgasm. "Yes."

"Do you want me to cum on your tits?"

"Yes!" cried Andi, for some reason that sounded so hot and kinky.

Paul was straining and suddenly he was kneeling over her ready to shoot his cum on her large round breasts when something inside of her whispered, "don't waste it." She sat up and took the head of his cock in her mouth as he began to cum. Spurt after spurt of his semen squirted into her mouth and she swallowed as fast as she could, her tongue coaxing his cum out.

Finally he pulled his cock back and he lay down next to her. "That was incredible," he gasped. They kissed and her lips were hot and swollen, he could taste the remains of his semen on her tongue. "You are incredible," he finally whispered as he rolled onto his back.

"You inspire me." And they cuddled together, her head on his shoulder and their arms around each other. They laid on the floor of the sauna until he realized that he was falling asleep. "Let's rinse off and get to bed."

"You have the greatest ideas," she said. They got up and rinsed off with the last of the hot water then dried off and walked naked together, arm in arm, to the couch where they pulled their night clothes on. She made the bed up while he stoked the fire and before Andi realized it, they were curled up together kissing each other good night.

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Andi awoke to the sound of the wind; the cabin rattled and shook with every gust of wind, but Paul's hand was still on her breast. Reluctantly she pulled it away. Nature's call could not be ignored so she eased out of the couch to discover that the occupancy doubled sometime in the night again. The twins had once again joined them and fell asleep under the blanket at the other end of the couch. She smiled and her heart leapt at the thought that her entire family was there. Everyone but Wonka.

The air was chilly so she quietly bent to check the fire and as she did she heard the springs in the couch creak. She added a few logs to the fire which had burned low, then she adjusted the air intakes and the flames leapt to life.

As she took care of business in the kitchen she thought of the girls. Just days ago they were living a practically sterile life, they rarely left her sterile condo, they ate gluten free, red meat free, mostly plant based and now here they are in a barn eating MRE's and beef stew, playing with a dog when back in Denver they never had a goldfish for fear of germs.

Returning to the older cabin she fired up her laptop and checked emails, then logged in on the University Hospital VPN to check for messages from her team and follow up on Mr. Divorak and found that he had been admitted. Padma, her Physician's Assistant at the in-patient wing, will take good care of him. As she was typing a message to Padma a hand placed a cup of coffee in front of her. "Thank you." She said without looking up.

Paul returned to the twins on the couch. "You were right Sandy. When she puts her glasses on, she's a doctor, and when she takes them off, she's a mom."

"Uh-huh," nodded Madeline, "she can get mean too."

"Does she hit you and bite you and lock you in the dungeon?"

"No, she's mean!" said Sandy with a conspiratorial nod.

"She makes us turn off the TV!" said Madeline.

"Yeah!" agreed Sandy.

"I can hear you guys talking over there," called out Andi.

"Sssshhh!" both girls crouched down behind the couch, their tiny fingers over their lips.

"I'm going to go make breakfast, you guys stay here and keep Wonka quiet." The girls saluted and slid down on to the floor besides Wonka as Paul got up and went into the kitchen. He bustled around in the kitchen quietly then came out into the older cabin and prepared to go outside. Fully dressed in parka, scarf, hat, and boots he opened the door and a howling gust of wind brought a swirl of snow into the cabin. He had to push the door closed from the outside.

Andi shook her head and went back to her work. She heard some thumping from the outside, then the unmistakable sound of firewood being tossed into the wood box outside, and then quiet reigned except for the horrible gusts of wind slamming against the east side, the front of both cabins.

She was done, finishing up and signing off, when a tiny voice said "Mommy?"

She looked up and saw two pairs of eyes peeking at her over the edge of the desk. She took off her glasses to indicate to her girls (and herself) that work is over. "What is it dear?"

"Mommy, we're scared. Doctor Paul went outside and closed us in. It's dark!"

Andi looked up and saw that the big windows over by the table were covered with wood shutters as was the Dutch door they primarily went in and out of.

"Hear how windy it is outside? I think he covered the windows because of the storm."

The thought of Florida came to mind again, the sailboat and the palm trees. She didn't dare tell the girls, just in case it doesn't happen. Not that she doubted Paul, it's just that her work gets in the way of everything, being a cardiologist he probably has the same problem. "Let's go sit down on the couch."

"Doctor Paul went to get breakfast," said Madeline.

Sandy rolled her eyes up and touched her chin in thought. "Hamlets." Madeline nodded in agreement.

"Maybe omelets?" encouraged Andi as they settled down on the couch.

"I think I like hamlets better," said Sandy. "Doctor Paul says he makes them really good."

"Let's talk about Doctor Paul," Andi said while drawing her girls around her. She thought of how to say this for a long time then started with "It's just been the three of us your whole lives..."

"And Miss Roberta and Miss Juanita," added Sandy.

"Yes Roberta, we love Roberta and Juanita, but they're your daycare teachers. We see them only when mommy is working at the hospital."

"And at the clinic," added Madeline.

"That is the hospital, dummy!" said Sandy.

"Poo brain!" cried Madeline.

"Stop!" demanded Andi. "We're getting really close to time outs!" the girls settled down. "Good, now Doctor Paul and I have been talking..."

"And kissing," added Sandy.

Andi held a finger up in warning and Sandy fell quiet but still grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "Talking and kissing... and we have decided to get married." Andi paused for a reaction from the girls and received nothing. "So Doctor Paul is going to be part of our lives, he's going to live with us forever. We are all going to live together as one big family." Still no reaction.

"Where?" asked Sandy after a long pause.

"Well, we're not sure yet. We may stay at our house in Denver and Doctor Paul would move in with us. Or we could stay at Doctor Paul's house here in Springville..."

"Here in the cabins?" asked Madeline who suddenly had thoughts of unending snowmobile rides.

"He has a house in town, and we would come out here on weekends. Or, he has a house in Florida where it's always warm and sunny." Still no reaction. "His house in Florida is not far from Mickey Mouse's house..." Still nothing from the twins. They looked at each other with worried expressions.

Finally, Madeline asked in a timid voice "Will Wonka live with us?"

Andi looked at the chocolate lab who heard his name and looked up at them from his place in front of the fire. "Of course he will."

At those words, the twins leapt for joy. They put their arms around their mommy and kissed her cheek then jumped down on the floor and threw themselves on Wonka who made a groaning sound that Andi swore was a purr from a big dog.

"Come on, get back here. We still have talking to do." The girls scrambled on to the couch and they talked with Andi about the meaning of marriage, and what a father really means to a little girl. "When I was a little girl, I lost my daddy, it was the saddest day of my life, and I've been sad ever since. But I think God has given us Doctor Paul to remind us how good it is to have a daddy."

"Who is our daddy?" asked Sandy suddenly realizing that the equation was unbalanced.

Andi gave the same answer she gave before. Frank was a leach, an adulterer, and as far as the girls were concerned, a sperm donor. Andi did not want Frank near these children, and she didn't want them to know about him. She had decided that she would wait until they were older, she would reveal Frank's identity to them, when they could understand what she meant when she explained how he treated her and not a moment before. "You don't have a daddy; you have a bio-father. Just before you were born, the night I met Doctor Paul for the very first time, your bio-father decided he didn't want to be a daddy and left us."

"Why didn't you marry Doctor Paul then?" asked Madeline.

Andi mentally kicked herself for bringing up meeting Paul at that conference while carrying the twins. She used her generic answer that worked for all situations. "We both had work stuff."

"Yeah, work stuff," moaned both girls. 'Work stuff' has interrupted so much other stuff in these girls lives that it broke Andi's heart. Maybe she should quit the University and find a small practice that would allow time with the girls and Paul.

But there's important things to worry about first, "You can't call your father 'Doctor Paul', what are you going to call him?"

The girls shrugged and thought for a moment then called out "Daddy!"

Andi smiled "No, I'm going to call him daddy."

"No, I'm going to call him daddy!" said the girls in unison.

"No, I'm going to call him daddy!" they said over and over, growing closer and closer until their noses touched.

"No, now wait," said Andi, "we all should have a special name for him because of how he makes us feel. I call him daddy because he makes me feel all warm and safe and loved like a daddy should. Why don't you guys call him poppa, or poppo?"

After a short discussion that Andi couldn't understand the twins decided that anything like poppa or poppo or pappy or pop or pops would work but poppa was best, maybe. Ever since they could make noise, the twins had a way of communicating. They spoke to each other in a babble that slowly moved to the background as they began to speak English late, at the age of three, but their original form of communicating still remained. Andi called their private language TwinBabble® because it sounds like so much baby talk, but to the girls it carries so much information.

"What will he call us?" asked Sandy.

Paul answered, "I'm going to call your mommy baby." He had come in the new cabin through the Sauna door. The girls squealed and ran at him shouting 'Pappa!' the whole way. He scooped them up in his arms and snuggled them close. "And you are my love bugs! Because I love you both, and you're cute as a bug." Andi joined the family hug and Paul said, "Here is my baby."

"Where were you Daddy?" she asked with a kiss, "we missed you."

"I shuttered the doors and windows where the wind was hitting, then added wood to the box and then went out to the barn and collected some eggs."

"You have chickens?"

"WE have chickens," Paul corrected. "Chicken wings on the hoof. Right now, they're living in the barn in coops keeping warm and keeping us fed, In the summer they have a yard they roam around and scratch in."

The twins were deliriously excited about chickens. "We wanna live here," decided Madeline.

Untangling himself from the twins Paul said, "You haven't seen my house in town, or my house in Florida where Mickey Mouse and Iron Man live." The twins grew thoughtful at that suggestion, but in the end the chickens won out and the twins began crawling around the cabin clucking.

Paul prepared breakfast for his hungry family, farm fresh eggs, any way you want. Andi requested an egg white veggie omelet, the twins wanted hamlets, so Paul made them scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, and he had two over easy and included the unbroken yolks from Andi's omelet. He was completely out of milk, canned or otherwise, and he promised to get fresh milk from Gerry Hirsh once the storm breaks. Paul served the girls Tang which Sandy loved but Madeline turned her nose up at. "No Sunny D?"

"Sorry sweetie, but if they have a powdered version there will always be Sunny D in the cabin for you."

'Powdered?' Andi mouthed.

'It keeps,' he answered.

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Kickoff was 1:20 that afternoon so anything that required Daddy or Poppa had to be done before then. At one point both Momma and Poppa had disappeared, and the twins looked all over for them. They even looked under the cots up in the loft. They eventually found them in the sauna "rubbing their lips together" which is what the twins started calling passionate kissing. At 1:00 the big painting was swung up and the pre-game show was turned on.

"Paul?" called Andi from the kitchen. He didn't respond and continued to watch the pregame show. "Daddy?" Suddenly he got up and came into the kitchen. "Why did you ignore me calling you 'Paul' but jumped right up when I said 'Daddy'?"

"I don't know..." stammered Paul, "I guess it's because anyone can call me Paul, where Daddy is much more personal."

"Good to know," said Andi, "but look." She was standing in front of the range trying to reach the above stove microwave. Her fingertips were well over six inches from the controls. "I don't want to have to drag a chair in here when I want to make some popcorn, do you have a stool?"

"No problem," said Paul, and he wrapped up in his parka and ducked out into the storm to grab a step stool for her. She expected an old wooden milking stool or something like that, but Paul came back with a perfectly usable, yet clearly quite old, kitchen stool. It was a tall chair that would be usable at any breakfast counter, it had two steps that fold out from under the seat. It was all chrome with pink cushions, a sure product of the fifties. "Don't lose that, I use it to gather eggs in the barn."

"No, you don't, it would be covered with dust, straw and chicken poop, this is in pristine condition. Was it your moms?"

"Yes, it was a wedding present for my folks from my Aunt Hildi. When you're broke you get very practical wedding gifts. I keep it covered up, it was always in the kitchen and nothing reminds me of mom more than this stool."

"I'll keep a good eye on it for my Daddy," she said coyly as she sat on the seat.

"You're a sweet baby," he kissed her on the forehead, "Now, for the next three hours I'm going to mentally be in the Mile High Stadium."

"What?" Andi looked over his shoulder and saw on the TV that the Buffalo Bills were playing the Denver Broncos.

Moments before kickoff as tensions mounted on the TV, Paul watched in anticipation of a slaughter. His Bills were on a roll at seven and three and he was decked out in the Red White and Blue of New York State's only NFL football team. Bills hat, Bills sweatpants and slippers, and a Buffalo Bills jersey, #14 with the name Kelly on the back. He almost didn't notice Andi sitting down next to him decked out in Broncos Blue and Orange including an orange John Elway jersey.

Oh, it's on!

"Let make this interesting," she said as she grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl that rested on his lap.

"Are you suggesting a friendly wager?"

"I'm suggesting a sexy wager," answered Andi. "Let's say that for every time your team scores, you get an orgasm from the supporter of the other team."

"Which is good for you being multi-orgasmic and all."

Andi leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. "Only with you." She smiled in reverie of the memory of last night's love making. And the night before! A mind shattering orgasm before he even touched her pubic hair to start... she is still astonished.

"Ok, and how about a full body massage for the supporter of the winning football team," suggested Paul, "after all, a team can kick a lot of field goals but still lose."

"No taunting the loser?"

"You're in Bills Country darling, we may be mind-warped fanatics whose religion bleeds Genesee beer, but we are still gentlemen and fair sports."

"Then I accept the terms of this wager and eagerly look forward to the manipulation of my body." They kissed to seal the wager and it was Game Time.

The storm raged and howled outside the cabins, occasionally a severe blast of wind would blow some smoke down the chimney and into the room where the twins and their lover parents watched a game being played 2,000 miles away. The twins were decked out in Broncos t-shirts, blue sweatpants and neon orange fuzzy slippers to match their mom's outfit and they grew weary of the game before the first kickoff was actually caught. They drifted to the dinner table where they colored pictures and scattered M&Ms. Every time there was an exceptionally strong blast of wind that rocked the cabin or whenever the lights flickered, they ran to the couch and would crawl up on Paul and Andi's lap. Madeline generally crawled into Paul's lap; she liked the title he gave her; Love Bug. "Bug bug!" she would chirp as she snuggled in. But soon the cause of their fear would go away, and they would go back to coloring. Such is the restorative powers of having a daddy.

As for the game, on their first possession the Bills drove down to the Broncos 45 then stalled. Their punter had an incredible Coffin Corner kick, and the Broncos started their first drive from their own 1-yard line and lost a half of a yard on their first play from scrimmage. On their second play their fullback was trapped in the end zone and the Bills put the first two points on the board with a safety. Paul whooped and clapped his hands but there was no "In Your Face!" directed at Andi, if anything he was a gracious winner, and win or lose, he just liked watching his team play.

For her part, Andi patted his crotch and said, "I get to play with my new favorite toy."

The Broncos kicked off after the safety and the ball was caught at the 10 and after a good run the Bills started their second drive from midfield, but then went 3 and out. On their next drive the Broncos drove down to the Bills 27 where they stalled and kicked a field goal. Andi jumped up with a "Whoo Hoo!" and the twins chimed in "Go Broncos!" at the sound of their mother's cheer. They never looked up from their coloring. That was all the scoring for the first quarter, the score 3 to 2, and Paul and Andi were tied 1 to 1.

"Would you like a drink?" asked Paul as he got up and turned to the kitchen.

"A diet soda, any kind you got."

"I didn't bring any diet sodas," Paul said from the kitchen.

"Then I'm good."

Paul cracked open an ice-cold Genesee Cream Ale at the start of the second quarter, and Andi held out her hand "Let me try a sip," she said reaching for his "Genny Screamer." Paul relinquished the long neck bottle and Andi took a sip. When Paul held out his hand for the bottle Andi just looked at him and said "What?"

"My beer please?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, this one's mine."

Paul sighed and got up and got another beer out of the kitchen, checked on the twins and sat back down just in time to see the Broncos score a touchdown. Since the extra point counts as a score; Andi 3, Paul 1. Paul had placed bets on games before, but this bet really added to his viewing experience. The game became a thrilling defensive struggle packed full of incredible defensive plays, so much so that it looked like both offensive units failed to show up. Eventually the Bills scored a touchdown so at the half the score stood at Broncos 10, Bills 9, Andi and Paul were tied at 3 apiece.

While Paul made sandwiches, Andi set up a video call to her Nana with the twins. To start with she took a child's blue washable marker and put a dot on Sandy's nose, and with an orange marker put a matching dot on Madeline's nose. When Nana, Elinore Olson, appeared on the phone the twins cried "G.G.!" and tried to grab the phone out of Andi's hands. Andi had barely enough time to tell Nana that Sandy was the blue dot, and Madeline was the orange. Nana insisted on knowing which twin was which so they devised the washable dots on the twins noses.

"G.G.! It's snowing here!" cried Sandy, "we can't get out!"

"But we have bacon, and a fire in a box, and a kissy bell!" added Madeline.

"It's got missile toast and it really works!"

"We made a snowman!"

"I ate a turkey!" then the girls fell silent. "That's all!" said Madeline finally and started to hand the phone to Andi.

"There's nothing else?" Andi asked with a slightly stern look at them.

Sandy and Madeline thought hard, their little faces screwed up in concentration until Sandy said "Nope, that's all."

"There's no big change in your life? No one new to love you forever?"

Suddenly Madeline's face brightened. "Wonka! We got a dog!"

"He's really big!"

"He sleeps with us!"

"He's soooo cute."

"Sometimes he's gassy, but we still like him."

"He's got a chewy rope, it's always damp." And the girls fell silent again.

"That's all? Nothing else or no one else?" asked Andi.

"I see where I fall in this family, after Wonka and a kissy bell," said Paul as he brought in sandwiches for the twins.

"Oh yeah G.G. we got a dad too."

"That's wonderful!" gushed Nana, "Tell me all about him."

"Well... he's tall," said Sandy as she fought for something to say.

Madeline thought hard, her brows knitted in the effort to come up with an idea. Suddenly her face brightened. "He's got this great dog, his name is Wonka!"

"And he's chocolate! Wonka isn't made out of chocolate, he's chocolate colored," said Sandy.

"But he doesn't taste like chocolate," said Madeline.

"He tastes like hair."

"All right you stinkers! Enough with your game, tell G.G. about poppa," admonished Andi. With that the twins fell into giggles that took a full minute to extinguish.

"He's pretty chill, he's a great cook."

"He makes hamlets from a pig he knows and has chickens too!"

"He has a pond, with fish and frogs."

"And he shoots turkeys so we can eat them."

"He likes mommy a lot."

"They're always kissing."

"Kissy, kissy, kissy."

The twins started making kissing noises and only stopped when Andi snatched the phone from them. She answered Nana and Ole's questions while the twins ate, and Paul went back to the game.

The second half was more wide-open than the first, not only were the offenses able to read the defensive strategies, but Andi also developed a real taste for Genesee Cream Ale. Buffalo scored one touchdown in the third quarter and the Broncos scored two. Going into the 4^th quarter the score was Broncos 24, Bills 16, Andi 7, Paul 5. The Bills scored another touchdown in the final quarter so in the final minutes of play the score stood at Broncos 24, Bills 23, Andi and Paul tied at 7.

The Bills received the ball on their own 15 after a Denver punt with only 1 minute and 12 seconds remaining. The Bills finally dug in and drove down to the Denver 35 and with 3 seconds remaining lined up to kick a field goal. Paul and Andi waited with breathless anticipation for the snap. Just as the Bills were ready to snap the ball, Denver used their last time out to ice the kicker.

That's when the power went out.

Except for the pop, snap, and hiss coming from the wood stove, the cabin was silent and dark. With the storm shutters blocking the windows, the feeble sunlight accompanying the storm oozed through the slim crack at the edge of the window near the Christmas Tree. After a long breathless pause one of the twin's tiny voices could be heard:

"I didn't do it."

"Me either."

"What do we do?" Andi whispered in Paul's ear, hoping the twins didn't hear her ask.

"We wait it out," he said loud enough for the twins to hear. He was going to call them over, but he found out quickly that was unnecessary, the twins were almost immediately climbing into their laps. "Ok, troops, there's no reason..."

"What's a troop?" interrupted Sandy.

"It's a bunch of monkeys," which caused Madeline to giggle in spite of her fears, but Paul continued. "We have plenty of heat, we have battery and kerosene lanterns, we have a stash of flashlights and emergency candles, I checked my cell phone and we still have phone service, we have plenty of firewood, food, books, and games. But most of all, we have each other."

"Yeah!" the twins said and leaned over and hugged each other, rocking back and forth.

"The stove is electric," said Andi.

"We have several options, we have a camp stove, we can cook on the wood stove, if the wind stops, I can break out the charcoal grill, and there's always MRE heaters."

"What about the refrigerator?" she asked.

"We fill empty containers with snow and pack the fridge. It will keep. One last thing however, when you go potty, don't flush unless you poop." Andi looked confused so he continued, "The water that's used to flush the toilet is pumped from a well, and the pump is electric. There should be plenty in the storage tank, but we don't know how long we will be down."

The first thing Paul did was get a couple of hurricane lanterns from the cabinet under the stairs, made sure they were topped off with scented lamp oil and lit them. Soon the cabin was filled with a gentle yellow glow from the two lanterns, one was placed on the table so the twins could return to coloring, and the other was hung on a hook over Paul's desk. While he did that, Andi checked the fire, added some wood, and adjusted the air intakes on the stove. Soon the twins tired of watching the fire and headed over to the table to return to their artwork leaving Paul and Andi to snuggle on the couch while the storm howled outside, and before long the two lovers were asleep in each-other's arms.

Paul woke with the twins nudging them. "The lights work and it's not windy," said Madeline.

Paul eased out from under Andi and blew out the kerosene lamps, then checked the circuit box, none of the breakers tripped when the power came back on. "Ok girls, I'm going to go shovel snow, keep an eye on your mommy."

He couldn't get out of the east facing doors, the front doors, they were blocked with snow. So, he dressed and went out the back door which the wind had blown clear of snow and trudged through the drifts around to the front of the house. He quickly shoveled the front door clear then opened the shutters and the storm door.

When Paul opened the shutters, Andi was able to finally look out on a blazing snowscape. The storm dumped another three feet in its last 12 hours, and then it was gone. By the time Paul had fired up the snow blower and cleared out the snow from under the patio roof the Sun had come out and it was blazing bright in the late afternoon.

Andi came outside to watch not long after Paul had fired up the Kubota and started clearing the snow away from the barn and cabins. He gestured her over and she walked up to the tractor he hopped down and said, "Want to learn how to drive this?"

"Yeah! It looks like fun." She shocked herself with her answer. She scrambled up into the modern padded seat and grabbed the wheel.

"This is a hydrostatic transmission, that means there's no clutch and no shifting. That petal under your right foot is the control you want. Push down with the front of your foot and it will go forward. The further you push the faster you go. To go backwards push down with your heel and it goes backwards. Give it a try."

After a jerky start, she got the hang of going forward and back. Paul walked up to the grinning little doctor. "Like it?"

"This is wild! I love it!"

"Ok, this lever, the one that looks worn, that raises and lowers your plow. Pull back to raise, and to lower it, just push it forward and after a moment let it go. I have it set to 'float' so the arms will lower the plow to the ground by themselves. Give it a try."

She raised and lowered the plow blade several times then Paul said "Go ahead and plow. Don't forget to raise the plow when you go backwards."

"OK!" she shouted over the engine.

After about 6 passes Paul came up and gave her some advice, and then she started plowing completely on her own. While she did that Paul gathered up the twins in their bright green and red snow suits and took them over to the big barn followed by Wonka. There, deep in the tools and articles that revealed the history of farming and the repair work farmers did to their machinery, were the chickens. Paul had promised each twin a visit with the chickens. He led them into the work area, then up a flight of creaky wooden steps to the henhouse built into the hayloft. The chickens clucked and squawked their indignation at the intruders who dare enter their domain, then finally their ire mellowed to a few squawks but mostly clucks as the hens peeked out of their little warm cages to see their visitors.

"You can come out here with me tomorrow when I check for eggs."

"You take their eggs?" asked Sandy as he held up her mitten covered hand for a chicken to peck at.

"That's the deal. I give the chickens food and water and a nice place to live where the fox won't eat them, and they give us eggs.

"What happens if they don't have any eggs?" Sandy continued.

Paul crouched down so he could look his future daughter straight in the eye. "In that case we cook them up and eat them. This is how life on the farm works."

Paul waited for her to cry but she didn't. She just pondered the information then returned her attention to the chicken in front of her. "Ok." And that was it.

Madeline was trying to pet a chicken that was peeking out at her. "This one looks delicious."

He let them visit with the chickens a while longer, pulling out his cell phone he documented their visit with photographs, then leaving the barn they discovered that their mom had cleared the entire yard and drive in front of the barn and cabins, and was now working on the long sweeping driveway. Paul, the twins and Wonka settled on the couch and Paul said, "Tomorrow morning we can dig your mommy's car out and as soon as the roads are open, we can go home."

He did not expect what happened next.

It was getting dark by the time Andi pulled the tractor up to the cabin, shut it down and hopped off. Cold but elated she stepped into the cabin only to find the twins wailing in tears crying "I don't wanna leave papa!"

"What's going on?" said Andi to her weeping children.

"Poppa said we have to go home!" wailed a heartbroken Sandy.

"We will sweetheart, but Poppa will be there with us, we're going to be one big family." But Sandy and Madeline were inconsolable.

"I just said we will be able to dig the car out and..." Paul was trying to explain.

"These things happen, they're overloaded with everything that has happened, all the new and exciting things like dogs, chickens, and snowmobiles and seeing their mommy in love. It's a lot for a little mind to process."

"I'm going to count on you to help me navigate these shoals," Paul said as his lips neared hers

"It's like driving a tractor," said Andi between kisses, "it just takes practice."

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Crying eats up a lot of energy, and to replenish, the twins bulked up on carbs at dinner tearing into their spaghetti like they haven't eaten in months. Andi and Paul just watched the girls demolish their dinners at the table, the twin's little eyes opening wide as they forked in the noodles and didn't even slow down when they came to the venison meatballs.

Paul's heart filled with love as he watched the little ones devour their dinners. He now knew why Andi had them remove their t-shirts and eat dinner topless - there was spaghetti sauce everywhere. Mama Giardini is going to be so proud of them.

"Mama Who?" Andi asked.

Paul was shocked, can my bride read minds? "Pardon?" Paul asked uncomfortably.

"You just said that Mama Giardini is going to be proud of them."

"I must have been thinking out loud. A long time ago when dad's business was on the skids we lived in a real low-rent area called Tiorunda in Cheektowaga. They call it "the projects," it was military housing left over when they moved the Army Air Corps out of the area. It's where I grew up really. My brother John and I had paper routes, and on the south edge of Tiorunda on Genesee Street there were all these Italian and Greek restaurants. They let John and I sell any leftover papers to the customers. We'd go into Giardini's and Mama Giardini would say "You boys are too skinny, come eat!" and she would make us sit down and eat her spaghetti. Of course, we'd wash dishes to pay, but hey, we were making the best of a bad situation."

"That sounds wonderful," said Andi wistfully whishing her sterile upbringing included Italian grandmothers and neighborhoods with little restaurants.

"Mama Giardini is still there. Her son Danny is running the restaurant now and he married a Tiorunda girl who manages the kitchen, but we still have Mama Giardini greeting folks at the door and serving as hostess. We will go there some evening so the girls can try some real spaghetti."

"You never told me much about your brother John. Are you hiding him from me?"

Paul drew back and smiled. "No, I love my brother John. It took me years to do so, but I love him. He's the reason why when I retired from the Air Force, I ended up here in Springville. He's the pastor in the Springville Congregational Church."

"A celebrity in the family!" smiled Andi.

"Originally he was a failure," said Paul.

"Oh?"

"We packed him off to Jesuit seminary expecting to get back a Roman Catholic priest which would have put us on the social register in Buffalo, but what we got back was a married protestant minister who loved Jesus more than the catechism, and a Canadian sister-in-law. After I retired from the Air Force, I went to him... actually his wife Macy dragged me to him... and I talked about what happened with Melony and he convinced me to wait for you."

"Me? What do you mean me?

Paul took a long drink of his water and said, "I was so lonely, and I asked John what to do, and he said, 'Don't worry about it, when she comes you'll know her and she'll know you, and God will bless your union.' I asked him what he meant, but he said, 'That's how it's going to happen.'"

Andi rose and walked to his side of the table and sat side-saddle on his lap. "Are you sure it's me? Am I the one you have been waiting for?"

"I'm sure of it," said Paul, "It's only been 70 hours since we met, and I can't conceive of a life without you. If you find that creepy, I'm sorry and I wouldn't blame you if you left."

"What creeps me out it the thought of a life without you," said Andi as her nose touched his. "I can't wait to become Mrs. Adrianna Jarecki and..." she slipped her reading glasses on "...Doctor Roberts is considering going into practice with Doctor Jarecki." She took off the reading glasses and smiled. "That's my goofy way of saying that I'm going to change my name when we marry, but I will remain Doctor Roberts, it's just too much work changing your name in the medical field."

"You're going to love the area once we can get out of this snow globe," and they kissed again until Paul noticed that Sandy and Madeline were gone, they slipped off the stack of medical reference books they had been using as boosters and were heading upstairs. "Hey you two!" called Poppa Paul.

With a giggle they shot up the stairs, Andi and Paul in hot pursuit. They snagged the girls who were trying to crawl under a cot. Andi got a leg on each of them, and Paul lifted the cot so Andi could pick up the squirming girls. Now they were covered with spaghetti sauce, noodles, and dust. Wordlessly Andi and Paul agreed a shower was in order, they carried the squirming, giggling girls down the stairs and over to the new cabin, where they got them ready to shower.

Andi scrubbed down the girls one by one and Paul dried them off as they tried to escape then wearing towels they retreated to the old cabin to relax and let the girls watch a Christmas special on TV before bedtime.

"Wait until they see the fireflies," said Paul.

"Hmmm?" said Andi, so relaxed in Paul's arms that she didn't even want to work her jaw muscles.

"Late June, early July - firefly season. It's so beautiful up here, I can't wait to share it with you. They're like silent fireworks."

"I hope we're married before that," mumbled Andi.

"How about Christmas Eve?"

Andi counted on her fingers, that's just two weeks away, there's no time to plan, find a dress, send out invitations, book a church, order flowers, find dresses for the girls, not nearly enough time. Andi was the most surprised person in Erie County when she heard herself say "Yes, let's do it."

"Fine, I'll call John."

After they wrestled the twins into their nightgowns, and tucked them off to bed, Paul and Andi sat on the couch watching the fire, "If you can pull it off, get a church and a minister on Christmas Eve I'm all for it. I'm sure mother dearest will make time in her busy social schedule to fly in from Denver," said Andi.

"I can almost guarantee this. Let me call John." Paul put his phone on speaker and dialed his brother.

Pastor John Jarecki answered his phone with "Hey Paulie! Did you see the game? I love Saturday games, in my profession they're a God send! Go Bills!"

Andi rolled her eyes as Paul excitedly asked "We won? Ooo-rah!"

"Yes sir-ee! We're going all the way this year!"

"Umm, Ixnay on the ame-gay, on-Jay. I have a Denver fan sitting next to me. Hey - did you lose power in town? Ours went out right before the final field goal. It was out for a couple of hours."

"Nah, we have been good all day. So, what may be the nature of this call, if I may so inquire of youse."

Andi rolled her eyes again. Paul's brother does the Damon Runyon thing too.

"It's like this," started Paul, "I met the most wonderful woman in the world, she's been snowbound with me since Wednesday and we are discussing marriage one way or another, with or without you."

"I find that impossible since the most wonderful woman in the world has been married to me for over 10 years. Let me talk to this imposter."

"Hello John," said Andi.

"You sound wonderful enough, what is your name?"

"I'm Adrianna Roberts, but I prefer Andi. I'm a doctor like Paul and..."

"Andi - run. If you value your life RUN. I've been treating Paul for years, he's dangerous. Grab your coat and RUN!" The phone went silent for a very long pause then John said "Is she still there?"

"I'm still here."

"That may not be a good thing," said John, "I'm going to need some alone time with Andi. Paul, go and check on my chickens while I chat with Andi for a bit."

"Ok, I'll give you a half hour or so."

"If she's marrying you she may need longer. Are you gone yet?"

"Yea I'm gone. You can start," said Paul as he zipped up his parka.

"He's not gone," said Andi.

"I could tell by the tone of his voice," said John. "GO old man!"

"I'm going, I'm going," and Paul slipped out the door with a smile toward Andi.

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There was plenty enough for him to do to get ready to pull Andi's car out of the ditch. He found a couple of tow straps and he loaded them into the utility box of the Kuboda. Hmm, he thought there would be more to do. For the thousandth time he cursed the fact that the sweet old Ford tractor didn't have the lift arms and bucket that the Kuboda had, or the four-wheel drive that the orange powerhouse had. The Ford is a basically big gray and red antique that is mostly used as a lawnmower, but he loves it. And soon it will be a big gray and red daughter hauler he thought remembering how the twins enjoyed the hayride.

He tinkered and puttered and found a couple of boxes of decorations the twins might like in their new home and he put them in the back of the Ranger. He fed the chickens and made sure that they would be ok for a few days, he may not be back until Wednesday or Thursday to check on them. Before he realized it, he had spent over two hours just piddling around in the barn. He closed it up tight then headed back into the house.

Andi wasn't anywhere to be seen so he crept upstairs to find her in the full bed, curled up with Sandy, Madeline, and Wonka. He stared for a long time, trying to brand this scene in his mind forever, then he placed a kiss on Andi's cheek and whispered in her ear, "I will love you and protect you until the day I die." He waited to see if she would wake, but she didn't. She did however snuggle closer to Madeline (or was it Sandy?) and had a sweet smile gracing her lovely face. After waiting a spell, simply luxuriating in the sight of his future family, he pulled out his phone and took a picture then headed back downstairs and made a few calls.

First, he called John, who wouldn't reveal what he and Andi talked about, and couldn't be bribed with a six pack of Mallo Cups, so it must have been important. They talked for over an hour and ended with Paul agreeing to be there for church in the morning. He went back upstairs one more time and shook Andi's shoulder gently. She murmured what he took to be "I love you" and she gently clasped his hand, then gave Sandy (or was it Madeline?) a kiss and slipped back into sleep. He slipped down the stairs quietly and sit down on the couch.

He then made another call, this time to Gerry Hirsh, and then one to Brad Clemmons, and then he tried to go to sleep, but it was impossible. His arms felt empty. He had so gotten used to falling asleep with Andi in his arms, he found he wasn't able to sleep without her. He turned on the reading lamp next to the couch and went over the files he was looking at before he got the call to rescue a stranded tourist, but everything he needed to do with them was complete. Finally, making the decision, he got up, stoked the stove full of wood, gathered his files and folders, put his papers and laptop in his backpack and dressed as warmly as possible. He left the cabin quietly, put the backpack in the Ranger, then opened the barn door, started up the Kubota and headed off into the pre-morning darkness.

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Andi woke up feeling lost and alone. She had laid down with the twins for a little while, trying to settle them down, and fell fast asleep. She was nearly weeping from missing Paul so much. She had planned to spend the night with him on the couch again, but she slept right through it, and that hurt.

Then she smelled coffee. And bacon. She heard voices coming from downstairs. She looked around for the twins, but they were gone. She put on her sweatpants under her floppy flannel night gown then she pulled on Paul's bathrobe that dragged the ground when she walked, she then slowly crept down the stairs. There were two elderly couples seated at the table which was pulled away from the wall to make room for them. Madeline was sitting on the oldest woman's lap, Sandy was flitting around the table with a plastic cup in her hand, talking a mile a minute. Andi walked down the steps slowly taking in the whole scene, then Sandy saw her and raced towards her, a big white milk mustache adorning her face.

"Mommy! Grandma Hirsh brought me milk! From a cow! It's sooooo good! Can I pet the cow?"

Andi scooped Sandy in her arms. "I see that snuggle bug! Are you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Bug bug."

"Honey, these are our neighbors Irma and Gerry Hirsh, and Dianne and Brad Clemmons. They gave me a hand getting your rental out of the ditch." Paul gestured toward the window and there it was, parked facing the patio, two snowmobiles sat next to it.

"Oh, thank you all so much!" cried Andi. Having the sedan out of the ditch made her feel very relieved. "It was buried, how did you get it out?"

Brad spoke up. "Yer man called us in the middle of the night..."

"It was 9:30," his wife Dianne swatted him in the arm. The hog farmers were both slim as rails and in their late sixties.

"That's the middle of my night," continued Brad to chuckles around the table. "He asked us to show up at your car around sunrise with a shovel and he'd make us breakfast."

"He darn near had the whole thing done by the time we got there," said Gerry Hirsh.

"Yes, he did!" agreed his wife Irma. The dairy farmers were both a rotund and vital couple, clearly in their eighties.

Brad continued, "when Dianne and I headed out we found that your man had a lane plowed clear on Trevette road all the way to Route 39. When we got there, he had the car dug out mostly. We hooked up a chain, brushed off the snow, gave it a little tug and Irma there," he said gesturing to his neighbor, "drove it here to your doorstep."

"We've been having coffee and eggs and bacon and chatting for an hour now waiting for you to wake up," laughed Irma.

"Mooo!" said Sandy after a long drink of fresh milk.

"I don't know what to say," said Andi feeling the tears welling up. "The words 'Thank You' doesn't say enough."

"No, they don't, but these eggs and this coffee sure do!" laughed Gerry and the whole table broke into laughter.

The damn broke and Andi broke down into tears at the thought of neighbors waking up at sunrise to help another neighbor in need. "I'm sorry for being silly, but where I'm from all a neighbor seems to do is report you to the HOA for not cutting your lawn. You're all so wonderful!"

"Oh, heck little one," said Irma as Andi threw her arms around Gerry's neck and wept tears of gratitude, "if your man there couldn't cut your lawn, I'd make damn sure Dad here would."

"I sure would," said Gerry "Now sit down and eat your breakfast and stop acting silly."

Andi wiped her tears and pulled up a folding chair. Paul brought her a plate of scrambled egg whites (actually 2 egg whites mixed with one yolk), a cup of coffee with farm fresh milk, and a cherry pop tart, her favorite flavor. While she ate her neighbors regaled her with stories of blizzards past.

"Ok, folks, we love to have you, but we have to get dressed and head into church," announced Paul.

"See you there," said Dianne as she kissed Andi goodbye and headed out the door with Brad who waived.

"Going to join us this Sunday Irma?" asked Paul.

"No, Gerry can't be marked absent at St. Aloysius again or he'll get put on a committee," she laughed.

"Father Juan is a tough one," Gerry said as he shrugged on his coat. And with a series of goodbyes and promises of milk for the 'babies' everyone headed out the door, mounted their snowmobiles and roared off to their respective farms.

Paul made quick work of the cleanup while Andi washed the girls faces, brushed their golden hair, then led them upstairs to get dressed for church. Once dressed in matching outfits they came downstairs and found that Paul had the weeks garbage bagged and hauled outside, the kitchen spotless, the air vents on the wood stove closed and the fire slowly strangled to death.

They pulled their coats on and stepped outside into the bright morning sunshine, the sound of water dripping off the barn and cabin roofs filled the air. Paul walked over to the barn, opened a side door and drove out a new Ford Ranger. It was fire engine red with black fenders and huge wheels.

Wonka jumped into the back seat and sat straight up in the middle while Sandy and Madeline were buckled in on either side of him. "We have to get child seats right away," muttered Paul.

He started to get into the Ford when he noticed Andi standing in front of the cabin taking a picture of it with her phone. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she said, "I just want a picture of the place where I first found refuge..." she paused for a moment then continued, "...and love."

"Take a picture for me too," Paul whispered, and their arms entangled, he leaned down and they kissed.

They must have kissed for a long time because they suddenly noticed that the twins were yelling "Come ON you two!" - something the twins have been hearing their entire life.

Route 39 was opened from Morton's Corners to Springville so as they turned on to Rt 39, the truck climbing easily over snow left behind by the county plow, Andi was impressed by the huge piles of snow on the side of the road. "That's really impressive," she said.

"The snow may be gone in a matter of days, or it may be there all winter, it's hard to tell up here," said Paul.

Andi turned around to check on the girls. They were both holding on to Wonka's collar with a tiny hand, and Wonka seemed to enjoy their attention. "Are you OK?" asked Paul.

"Why do you ask?"

"Scratching."

"Oh," said Andi sheepishly, "I haven't worn a bra since Thursday afternoon. It kind of feels alien."

"Was that for me?" grinned Paul.

"It was for both of us," she whispered.

Paul had difficulty keeping his mind on the road, this was the first time he had driven with her seated next to him. The neckline on her dress wasn't even close to daring, but the memory of the delights nestled in her bra cups surfaced, and her legs - so beautiful, he hasn't concentrated nearly enough on them. But right now, Route 39 demands his full attention. Even though it was plowed, the road remained snow covered and was slippery. This was a fairly new vehicle, and this was the first chance he had to try it in the snow.

Eventually 39 widened to four lanes and descended into a steep valley. "This is Spooners Gulch," said Paul as Andi and the girls marveled at the forest on both sides of the road.

"So steep," said Andi with a shudder, "I don't even remember the road going down or up."

"That's called spatial disorientation. Your vision was obscured by the snow and your mind couldn't deal with the confused inputs it was getting." A well-known problem for pilots and as their flight surgeon, Paul would know.

"I don't even remember driving this far, how far is it between the US 219 Expressway exit and Trevette Road?"

"It's ten miles, and also, this is Western New York, we don't say 'the US 219 Expressway' we say 'da 219.'"

Andi was looking at maps on her phone and pointing them out. "Da 33?"

"Yep."

"Da 401?"

"Absolutely."

"Da 190?"

"Yes ma'am, it's also called da Youngman."

"Da 90?"

"Yes, but that's mostly called da trooway."

Andi sighed. "Will there be a test?"

By the time they got the vernacular of Western New York by-ways hammered out they were out of Spooners Gulch and passing under 'da 219.' "Here's where I should have turned left."

"And that's where you probably would have stayed," said Paul pointing out a huge, cozy looking Victorian farmhouse on the corner of 39 and 'da old 219.' As they eased into the village the roads were still partially snow filled and Andi was glad she didn't drive into Springville in the first place, she still would have been snowbound.

The husky little Ford clawed its way through the village, people with snow shovels and snow blowers were at work everywhere she looked. Paul eased down a side street and pulled up to a beautiful Victorian house. The driveway and sidewalk and broad porch were cleared of snow. "I need to put Wonka in the house," said Paul after pulling into the driveway. "Give me a few moments to get rid of this trash then we'll have a super quick tour before church."

Paul let Wonka out of the truck, grabbed the garbage bags out of the back and disappeared around the back of the house. While he was gone the three Roberts girls busied themselves looking up and down the street. "This is Currier and Ives come to life," whispered Andi and she couldn't wait to see what the Christmas lights in this town looked like. "Girls! Look at the Christmas tree in the front window of daddy's house!"

"OOOoooOOOooo!" the twins said in unison as they saw the tree covered in tinsel, glitter, ornaments shining in the sunlight, and lights flashing on and off. They got out of the truck and looked at the house, it was amazing!

Andi was in shock as she took in the house, it was huge! Well, huge as far as she was concerned. The front yard was quite large with a big tree, weeping willow she guessed. The iron fence around the yard was decorated with holly garland, and she could see that there were lights woven into the garland. From the look of the window placements the ceilings in the rooms would be exceedingly high, and the house stood a full three stories tall.

Paul returned as the twins ran around on the porch, Andi was completely in shock. Looking for something to say she asked "30-year mortgage?"

"There isn't a mortgage."

"Oh." Andi just couldn't get over the 'gingerbread' decorating the house at peaks and corners.

"It's paid off," continued Paul.

"Oh God you say the sexiest things," she murmured still looking up at the house.

Paul opened the gate for her and while the twins skyrocketed to the porch, she slowly walked up to the house, went up the three steps to the wrap around porch. She could just picture the hanging plants and the whirr of the hummingbirds, the taste of the lemon aide, the warm summertime evening breeze. Across the street she could see a village park, with a large gazebo and she could almost hear the band tuning up for the summer evening performance. The twins roared past her in their own exploration of the porch, but in her mind, she could see them pulling their baby brother in his wagon. Baby brother?!? Where did that come from?

"I could live on this porch," she said nervously. That image of the baby really threw her. "What's it got under the hood?" she slapped the siding of the house.

"Well," started Paul, "first floor has a kitchen with formal and informal dining, a..."

"Informal dining?" asked Andi.

"A breakfast nook that got carried away. You can seat about 8 in there easily. There is a parlor, that's where the big Christmas tree in the front window is. There's a formal library and a living room. There's a media room, a gym, and a steam shower in the basement along with storage and a workshop area. On the second floor are six bedrooms, two are master en-suite, the other 4 are in pairs sharing a Jack and Jill full bath. The third floor is mostly attic storage, but my office is up there along with a half bath."

"So, what's all this in realtor talk?" Andi was simply overwhelmed with the entire thing.

"I guess ummm...'Cozy Victorian cottage with 6 beds, 5 full baths, 2 half baths, 3 fireplaces, hot tub, sauna, steam room, swimming pool, professional kitchen with dual wall mount ovens and walk in pantry, 5 car detached garage with workshop'. Personally, my favorite part is the grape arbor and the fruit trees, but fruit trees only get top billing with realtors in Florida."

Andi sank down into an Adirondack chair on the porch. "All those rooms! How am I going to keep it clean?" Andi's condo in Denver could almost be considered a studio apartment. Kitchen, dining, family room, it was all one big room. It was just over 850 square feet, and with twins it was a chore to keep up with.

"I've got a service that comes in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays." She sat unmoving, staring off into space. "Andi? Are you all right?"

She held her hand up and said "Shhhhh, I think I might cum, keep talking dirty to me." Paul laughed but she said, "How do you afford this on a doctor's salary?"

"Oh, most of my medical work is pro-bono... there's consulting fees and the like but..."

"STOP!" Andi almost shrieked. "Where does the money come from?" she demanded.

"Oh, didn't I mention? My business, Jarecki Motors, we have ten Ford dealerships..."