NOTE -- This story is a quick tale about how an uncle and niece fall in love. It is entirely fictional and they are both adults. There is not a huge amount of sex, but there is some.
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"Abby dear, I'm going to make a quick trip to the store, do you want to come?" I asked.
Abby looked up from her book long enough to give me a quick shake of the head 'no'.
"Well, do you want me to bring you back anything?"
She looked as though she had something on the tip of her tongue, but then thought better of it. She shook her head again and went back to reading. In the two months or so that she had been living with me, I was yet to hear her speak. She had always been a quiet and shy girl when she was growing up, so much so that my sister took her out of school and taught her at home. Since her parents had died, her shyness seemed to turn into a full fledged social disorder. I took the death of my sister and brother-in-law hard, but it made something snap inside of her head. She would hide in her room whenever someone I knew stopped by, refused to talk on the phone, refused to talk at all for that matter.
I honestly did not know what to do with the girl. The doctor that I had taken her to see said that it would just take time for her to come out of her shell. He said that she would probably come around as soon as she felt more comfortable in her surroundings. I could tell that Abby absolutely hated going to see the man, so I ended up only taking her a couple of times. He advised me to stay in touch, and I had been, but I was starting to wonder if it was even worth it.
My mind was on my niece a lot back then, I was worried that she might not ever get out of the funk that she was in. The girl was twenty-two years old, she should have been out in the world, going to parties and chasing boys, not locked away in my extra bedroom. She had no friends and was basically afraid of her own shadow.
When I was wandering around the grocery store, I noticed several displays set up for Valentine's Day. I already had enough to worry about, I didn't need a reminder that I hadn't had a girlfriend in two years. I was only thirty-five, it wasn't like I had given up on life or anything. I had gotten busy and somewhere along the line I guess that I just stopped looking. The display did give me an idea, though. I thought I would get something for Abby. Maybe I could cheer her up a little.
I opted not to get her anything from the cheesy grocery store display, but I saw something that caught my eye in the window of the store across the street on my way in. It was a giant, white teddy bear with a pink heart on its chest. It cost me a small fortune, but I figured it would be worth it if it made Abby happy, if only for a little while. It was also kind of worth it to see the looks on people's faces while I was driving home. The bear was probably the same size as Abby, I had it buckled in the passenger seat.
When I got back home, Abby was nowhere in sight, so I was able to smuggle the bear in without her seeing it. I set it on the couch and went to go see if she was in her room. Her door was open and I could see that she was messing with something on her computer. I gave the door a quick knock to get her attention.
"Hey Abby, I got someone out here to see you," I said.
It probably wasn't the right thing to say if I wanted her to come out of her room. She looked at me, terrified, and began shaking her head violently from side to side. I couldn't imagine what would possibly scare her so much, but I immediately regretted my choice of words.
"Now calm down, do you trust me?" I asked.
She nodded 'yes' but wouldn't look me in the eye.
"You don't have to talk to him, he's not going to talk to you. Just come out with me and have a look. You can always come right back in here, OK?"
Reluctantly, she stood from her computer chair and followed me into the living room. She stayed close, using me like a human shield, but would never get quite close enough to touch me. I wanted to laugh in the worst way, but that would probably only upset her. I was taking her to meet a stuffed animal, not leading her to combat.
"Here he is," I said.
At first, she didn't even see the bear, she was looking around for a person. When she did notice it, I could see her visibly relax and a wide smile come across her face.
"I know that Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow, but happy Valentine's Day," I said.
She went over and gave the bear a big hug, then, surprisingly she came over to me and gave me one, too. I was a little stunned, it was the first time that she ever had done something like that. Even more surprisingly, I heard her whisper to me.
"Thank you."
She let me go and went back to the bear.
"You're welcome, Abby."
Abby smiled at me and carried her new toy off to her room. She almost looked like a different person when she smiled, it definitely brought the prettiness out in her face.
*****
I got home from work later than I wanted to the next day and was in a foul mood. My foreman had made the whole crew stay over to get all of the paint finished in the offices we were working on. It was crucial that we got it done before the weekend for deadline reasons, so the guys and I ended up working like animals for most of the day.
I had sent Abby a text earlier to let her know that I would be late. She never answered the phone, but seemed to have no problem with messaging. She told me that she would have dinner ready. One thing that the girl could do was cook, so that helped to lighten my mood. I could tell when I opened the door that something smelled good.
"Abby, I'm home," I announced.
She poked her head out of the kitchen and waved 'hello' at me. She was wearing an apron and looked cuter than Hell. It looked like she had done her hair and was even had on a little makeup. I wondered what the special occasion was.
"Whatever you're cooking, it smells wonderful. Do I have time to take a quick shower before we eat?" I asked.
She nodded that I did so I went to get cleaned up. I thought it was a shame that Abby had such a problem being around people. She really was a beautiful girl and would make some lucky guy happy. At the time, I didn't realize that it was going to be me.
After I got myself into a more presentable condition, I met Abby in the kitchen. I didn't have a dining room, so we usually ate our meals there. She had quite a feast laid out for us, baked ham, sweet potatoes, vegetables, the works. There was even a pie on the counter that she must have made from scratch. It looked like Thanksgiving had come early. Abby was looking even better than the food with her hair done and in a pretty, little red dress.
"What's all this for, and why are you looking so beautiful tonight?" I asked. "I mean, you always look beautiful, just more so right now," I corrected myself. Abby surprised me again by answering.
"Did you forget? It's Valentine's Day," she replied, blushing.
Of course I had forgotten. Even if I had remembered what day it was, I still would not have expected such a meal. I tried not to make a big deal out of her talking, I was told to act as if it was normal, but that might have been the most that I have ever heard her say up until that point. Her voice was soft and low, quite hypnotizing. Sadly, that was the only thing that she had to say during dinner. She did do a lot of smiling, which was almost as good.
By the time that we were finishing our pie, I was stuffed. I assumed that Abby was as well. She had eaten almost as much as I had.
"I think that was the best meal that I've ever had on Valentine's Day," I declared. "Maybe ever, I don't know."
Abby smiled at me, clearly pleased with herself. She got up to begin clearing the table and I joined her. I felt guilty enough that she went to so much trouble to cook everything that I at least had to help her clean up. She tried to shoo me away, but I wouldn't have anything of it. We worked together to load the dishwasher and package up the left overs. If you added up the time that we sat eating and then cleaning up, it was probably the most time that we had spent actually doing something together. I was happy that she seemed happy and that she wasn't moping around and hiding.
After the clean up, I went and flopped in my recliner in the living room to watch some TV. I didn't last long, however, the combination of the long work day and the big meal had me snoring shortly after I put my feet up. I was out for a couple of hours before I opened my eyes with a tiny hand shaking my shoulder.
"Uncle Adam?" Abby whispered.
"Yeah, what is it, Abby?" I asked, my vision was a little blurry from sleep, but it was nice to wake up staring into the pretty face of a young woman.
"You should go sleep in your bed, you'll have a backache if you sleep out here," she warned. I had to smile at her concern, it was touching in a way.
"Yes mother, I'll go sleep in my bed. You forgot to tell me to brush my teeth first," I replied, sitting up. She giggled, which was a girlish, bubbly sound.
"Brush your teeth, too," she said before running off toward her room.
When I laid down for good that night, I was thinking about how nice it was that Abby was starting to open up to me a little. And God, she was cute.
*****
The next couple of weeks went by fairly fast and uneventfully. I did little more than work and come home, Abby was still her quiet self, but cheerful enough. She made us dinner almost every night and was speaking with me more and more. It was almost to the point where we could have a conversation. One weekend, I decided to press her a little to see just how far she had come.
I found her in her room, typing on her computer. I was curious as to what it was that she was always working on, but I had decided long before that her business was her business. She looked up at me as I stood in her doorway.
"Hey, Abby. It's Saturday and I need a date. What do you say we grab an early dinner someplace and do some shopping? I hate getting groceries all by myself, and you're kind of in charge of cooking these days. You could at least show me what you want me to get," I suggested.
I thought it was a reasonable request, we were going through a lot more food than I ever had before on my own. Not only was there two of us eating, compared to me who cooked things out of a box, her meals used real ingredients.
"I don't know," she said, looking skeptical at the thought of leaving the house. The last time that she was out was when I took her to see her doctor, and I could tell that was a painful experience for her.
"I won't make you do anything, I just thought it would be nice for you get out a little. I wanted to pay you back for all of those wonderful meals that you've made for me. Besides, there must be something that you want to buy, I've never met a girl that would turn down an offer to go shopping," I teased.
I knew for a fact that she had received a small fortune after my sister and her husband had died. They had left me quite a little chunk for being the executor of their estate. So far, she hadn't spent a dime.
"I'm not like most girls," she said, her face dead serious. No kidding.
