The Wood Nymph
Mike was in his workshop planing a stack of rough sawn cedar. He had about a thousand board feet of it and he wanted it all planed before he stacked it on the lumber rack he had finished earlier in the week.
It had been a rainy spring but this Friday in late May had started out mild and without a cloud in the sky. The forecast was for continued clear weather for the weekend with the temps in the mid 80's and the humidity around 80%. It made working outdoors or in his shop hot and sweaty but he preferred that to the cold damp winters. He theorized that he could always take enough cloths off to get cooled off but when he was cold he couldn't seem to get warm regardless of how much he had on. His personal climate theory was the reason he still slept on a waterbed, something he'd first done in the early 70's. As far as he was concerned, hopping into a warm bed on a cold winter night was the way to go and he wouldn't give it up for the world. It also afforded him the luxury of sleeping nude, something else he'd adopted in the 70's and never gave up.
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Mike's house was at the closed end of a dirt road. From a distance, unless you had traveled the road, you wouldn't even know the road continued because of a dogleg right before his house. It offered him the privacy he was looking for when he bought the property years earlier. He hadn't spent more than a couple weeks at the hideaway until, at age 63, he took an early retirement from his job. Since then he had rented out his house, packed up his belongings and moved here to this southern state.
Mike was a widower, having lost his wife to cancer some six years earlier. He had dated some before leaving the coast; women his friends had set him up with. Most were one or two date affairs. A few of the women were attractive and horny enough to satiate his sexual needs for a while but none of them attracted him to the point where he wanted to pursue anything serious. So for all practical purposes he had been alone since his wife's passing.
Mike had a small porn collection; which he watched when he needed to release his sexual tension after his friends' list of available women had run out. He hadn't met any women since moving so the porn collection had been used more frequently. He had noticed an attractive woman on his road right before the dogleg turn. Because of the turn in the road their backyards were adjacent to each other which meant she was his next-door neighbor. Although he hadn't taken the initiative to try and meet her, she had been the object of his fantasy a few nights while he was watching porn.
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Mike fed a cedar plank into the planer, guiding it with his hand until he was sure it would travel straight. Once it was well on its way he walked around to the backside and guided it until the tail end of the plank had exited from under the rotating knives. Mike picked it up and flipping it over, stacked it on top of the pieces he had already planed. Once he had it all planed on one side he would run it through to finish the other side.
When he started back toward the feed end of the planer he looked up and was startled to see a petite blonde standing in the doorway. He thought he recognized her as the woman from the house next door.
"Whoa, you startled me," he said as he reached over and shut the machine off.
"Sorry," she offered. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you but with all the noise your planer makes, it was impossible not to."
"The lady knows her wood working tools, I'm impressed," he answered.
"I took a wood working class a long time ago, she said. I don't remember what all the machines are called, but for some reason I remember that one."
"Sometimes I have to stop and think about it myself," he lied, trying to put her at ease. "It's not often I get a visitor, and a pretty one at that," he continued, taking his gloves off, "My name is Mike."
"Hi, Mike," she said, blushing a little at his compliment. "My name is Ginger. Well actually it's Georgia, but my friends have always called me Ginger because of my hair."
He looked at her hair and realized it was more red than blonde but he said, "I would have called it strawberry blonde rather than ginger".
She offered, "It was darker when I was younger, but by the time it lightened to this color the name had stuck."
"I see. Well it's nice to meet you Ginger or Georgia," he said. Taking the hand she offered, holding it lightly, letting her do the shaking.
"I live down the road, just around the corner," she explained.
"I thought so," he replied, "I've seen you a few times when I passed by your house. You have a nice looking place."
"Thank you Mike," she said, continuing, "I like it, it's not big but it fits us nicely."
"Us?" he asked, he hadn't ever seen anyone else at her place and there was never more than one vehicle parked in front.
"Me and my dog", she said.
"I see," Mike answered; trying to mask his relief at hearing she was apparently unattached. He had heard she was alone and now hearing her validate that fact would no doubt further his fantasies. He was also pleased to see that up close she was even more attractive than he could see from the road when passing by. Her hair was shoulder length and framed a very attractive lightly tanned face.
She was dressed for the spring weather, wearing light tan shorts and a loose thin-strapped white top that was cut low in the front, revealing some of her cleavage. Her breasts were small but perky, jiggling slightly as she moved. Her nipples pressed against the light material suggesting that she wasn't wearing anything under her top.
He had heard she was in her late forties, but even dressed casually as she was, she could easily pass for someone ten to twelve years younger.
"So you're a woodworker huh?" She asked, looking around at all the equipment.
"Well, not really, not professionally at least. It's more like a hobby, I just like working with wood. I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with this stuff," he replied, "at this point all I'm making is shavings. Maybe you'd like some to make a sachet to put in the drawer with your unmentionables"
She laughed at his joke "Well maybe I would. I was just out for a walk and I heard the noise so I thought I'd stop and introduce myself. I don't mean to keep you from your work," she said, "Maybe I should go, unless you need help."
"Well don't rush off on my account," he said, hoping she would stay, "I never turn down free help."
"Did I say free?" she asked, laughing.
"So what do you charge?" he wondered.
"How about you let me help you with your wood, then we'll talk pay," she said.