Jillian steadied the step ladder as Josh reached still higher into the attic to push in the last few boxes. The attic, among many things, held Jillian's summer and winter wardrobes. She was finishing her semi-annual changeover with Josh's help. It was an intense spring and she knew that summer was close at hand. Josh was special to Jillian and the son to her best friends, Becka and Jimmie. They lived right next door and shared a common back yard.
Jillian had witnessed Josh's maturation evolving from just a young, cute lad to a full blown high school hunk who could drive a car, drive a golf ball, drive a sail boat and from what she could see, drive the young ladies quite giddy. His boyish charm remained even though he was now a senior but to Jillian, he would always be her little man; or so she thought. She knew Josh had a crush on her and from a very early age. When not at home, Josh could most likely be found at Jillian's with just about any reason to be there.
Josh stood close to the top of the stepladder and was just pushing in one of two remaining clothes cartons. As he stretched, Jillian held the ladder base so he could not push the ladder out from under himself. It was not the safest move but with two people, it would work. As she craned her neck looking up to see how this tricky maneuver was going, she sighted right up Josh's baggy gym shorts and to his crotch more because this was aligned to the task at hand. She peered more closely unsure of what she saw.
"Josh...what are you wearing under there?...Are you wearing panties?" she asked with a certainly already in her voice.
Josh froze on the ladder afraid to make even a slight movement. For what assuredly was no more than a second or two Josh reddened completely and stayed put.
"Josh? Are those panties?"
"Ummm...yes. Yes they are. Miss J, I don't know what to say other than that I am so embarrassed!"
"Josh come down here. Come on."
As Josh descended, Jillian continued to look upwards to confirm.
"Josh, tell me what's going on?"
"Miss J..." was all he could say looking down at the carpet. His face remained fully crimson and he clasped his hands to his front, fingers laced in some sort of effort to hide his embarrassment and what lay beneath. "I can't say why. I just can't.
She took his hand and led him to the bed where she sat down. Josh remained standing directly in front of her clearly uncomfortable with this situation.
Without a word, Jillian tugged the gym shorts half way down, careful not to expose him but wanting to confirm her assumption. As the shorts came down, she saw a panty, laced trimmed, and very much like a pair she owned.
"Josh, where did you get these?"
"Please Miss J, I am already embarrassed. You know where they came from, don't you?
"I will ask the questions. Are these mine?" she intoned with a slight cast of surprise in her voice and an inquisitive wrinkle now on her brow?
"Please Miss J...I promise I won't do it anymore!...okay?. I don't know what got into me."
As she stared, she noticed that he was reacting to the situation. His staff was beginning to peep up and rather than leave him to further embarrassment, she snapped his shorts back up and sat there unsure what to do next.
Josh was her favorite neighborhood kid. He took care of her place as she travelled, feeding the cat and helping her in the yard. He was a great young man and part of her family in a way. This last year or so had been very difficult for Jillian. Josh and his parents, Becka and Jimmie, had been tremendous in showering her with support. A year and a half prior, she had just opened a letter telling her that she could not get pregnant...ever. And as she re-read the letter, a Marine staff car drove up and stopped in front of her home. In that moment, she found out she had lost her husband and best friend to an IED in some place she could not even find on a map and now she would not and could not ever bear their child. She collapsed.
Josh Steadman and his parents, Becka and Jimmie, had looked after her in the ensuing months, helped in making all the arrangements and generally seeing that she was recovering. They had evolved to a very comfortable open door relationship. Her recovery had been a long and difficult process with a result that the Steadmans had become her family.
Jillian was now reinserting into her professional career as a highly sought environmental consultant which saw her crisscrossing the US. Josh contributed to her career by allowing her to stay away, sometimes for a week or more and knowing her Sylvester the Cat was well fed and her home safe. He sometimes stayed in her home while she was gone.
Her core competency was to either protect a globally shrinking wetlands habitat (her preference) but more often than not it was to see if a formerly pristine wetland could be reclaimed. The latter was difficult since a healthy wetlands habitat supports a vast ecosystem of plants and animals, mostly unseen by humans. Once stressed and degraded, re-establishing a truly healthy biome took decades if at all. She likened the process to a dike breaking and flooding the backlands. Yes, one could certainly plug the dike but the damage done would take years from which to recover. Because of this, her practice stressed prevention in favor of cure since habitat destruction was typically terminal.
Health exuded from her. She was fortunate in that, to the eye, one could see she was in great physical shape yet she possessed a feminine layering that allowed her to stand in two distinct kingdoms: that of a jock and well as a nubile woman. Most women possessed either one quality or the other. They could be a true physical specimen but with this came a bodily leatheriness where the tits were too reduced and the lack of body fat resulted in a flinty texture. Yes they could claim fitness but lost on the feminine front.
Jillian possessed the stamina and character of an athlete but her feminine charms were always apparent from her green eyes, jostled sandy hair which lightened with the sun, tanned features, plump breasts, tiny waist, round bottom and torchy legs. Her Floridian home base fostered these attributes allowing her most of the year to enjoy a climate in tune with her liking. She was envied by both men and women alike. It was difficult to state her most attractive feature in that each contributed to a phenotype void of shortcoming, long on generosity and complete in that the impression one observed was that of endless possibilities.
Jillian was of a slightly different breed. As an example, she purchased her shoes not to hide ugly feet but because she found them attractive. So many women used adornments to cover some flaw. Jillian's anatomy required neither cover-up nor camouflage. Her clothes were simple but only of high quality. If she wore make-up at all, it was not to diminish a large nose but to compliment an outfit. And while this was all fine and good, her preferred attire consisted of cargo shorts, flannel shirt, light hiking books and B&L aviator glasses as her domain was the out-of-doors and in situations where a wetlands fiasco was to be averted. Yet her underthings remained very feminine; a bit of a secret known only to herself...and now Josh too? She regarded herself as feminine in her core with all this implies.
