I had taken two weeks off to vacation at the lake. It was going to be sort of a working vacation, since I would be working on Uncle Ed's cabins. Uncle Ed is my wife's uncle, who has more money than he knows what to do with. He owns a whole resort on the lake, complete with about twenty cabins. He usually sets aside ten or so cabins in the middle of the summer for all of the shirt-tail relatives to use and a sort of loose family reunion ensues every summer.
This summer was a little different for me. Louise was spending the summer in Germany, working on her PhD, doing research in some old university there. I had agreed to spend the two weeks at the cabins hooking up Uncle Ed's new satellite dish network to all the cabins. In return, I was getting not only free room and board, which was usual, but the use of Ed's sailboat, and basically any damn thing I wanted from the marina, all on his account. Not that this would affect Ed in the least: he would be in Africa the whole summer, and I couldn't hope to put a dent in his bank account anyway. He just traded stuff like this with me because he liked to wheel and deal and we had struck this deal a year ago over a card game. The work was no big deal. The sailboat was. It was a big, fine sailboat, the biggest on the lake, and great fun to sail if the breeze came up.
I was going to miss most of the family get-togethers this summer, as I was showing up a little late, and most of the crew was packing up and heading out. I did show up in time for the feast that usually marks the end of the vacation for most of the relatives.
When I drove up to the main lodge, the whole group was out front by the beach, enjoying what might be the last of the warm weather. The picnic tables were stacked high with food, and about twenty-five of Louise's relatives were yukking it up over beers, brats, and potato salad. The sun was shining and the breeze coming in off the lake carried the aroma of fun and relaxation: fishing and sailing; warm days on the beach, and cool nights by the fire. All my thoughts of work and stress just melted away.
I parked my van next to the lodge, one of those huge log cabin constructions. Fred waved from the picnic table. Fred was the caretaker of the lodge and cabins. He managed the rental of cabins and the rooms in the main lodge. We had known each other for many years and had similar tastes in beer, fishing, and sailboats.
"Dave! Grab a plate!" he said, handing me a cold beer. "Good to see you! How was the drive up here?"
"No problem, Fred. Just a little slow 'cause of the road construction." I started loading up my plate at the food table and checking to see who was here that I knew. Louise's extended family was big enough that I only got to see some of them every few years or so, and it looked like this crowd was mostly those that I had only met once or twice. I did recognize Albert and Edna, distant cousins of Louise, who lived in Canada. It had been a long time since we had visited them. I waved at Albert, who held up his beer and continued to munch away on a bratwurst. Edna didn't even see me so I sat down by Fred and started chowing down.
"How's life treatin' ya, Fred?" I asked.
"Not bad, Dave, not bad. It's been an easy summer, and the next couple of weeks three of the cabins will be empty, so I'll probably be able to catch up on my boat a little bit."
Fred was about sixty years old, and had been building a sailboat for the last twenty. It was almost done, and Fred was planning on retiring on it. (It had never sailed, and was not likely to soon, at the rate that Fred was working on it. He always talked about working on the boat, but he seldom did, even though it was almost finished.)
Fred was a roly-poly bear of a man; gone gray, but not gone soft. Just slowed down somewhat. Even at that, he made running the resort seem more of a hobby than work, and somehow everything got done; and Fred still had time to talk to everyone; and fish off the dock; and sit outside the lodge and sun himself.
I was listening to Fred tell me how his sailboat was coming along, and what had happened at the lake since I had been up there while I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone approaching from the lodge.
She was a tall girl, with a beautiful tan, and long brown hair that curled down around her shoulders. She was headed for the food table. Her cutoff jeans shorts were very short and the crisp white blouse was caught up in a knot just under her breasts, exposing her midriff. As she bent over the food table to get a plate, I couldn't help admiring how well her perfect heart-shaped ass filled out her short cutoffs.
She went around to the other side of the table and leaned over to reach the potato salad. The front view was even better than the back. She had a beautiful face, with large dark eyes, and a full red mouth. As she leaned over I could see the soft round sides of her breasts. I don't know if she caught me staring down her blouse or not, but she looked up suddenly, smiled, and said,
"Uncle Dave! How are you?
"Uh, great!” I replied, realizing suddenly that I should probably recognize this girl.
"How are you doing?" I asked.
"Excellent!" she said, "Where's Louise?"
"She's in Germany, finishing up her PhD." I said. (Shit! Who was this angel? I tried to estimate the age of this cute young thing. 18? 20? Her face had just a hint of adolescence, but her body had all the firm curves of a full-grown woman.)
"How's your folks?" I asked, hoping to get more clues to who this babe was and why I should know her. Was she really my niece?
"Oh, they're doing fine. They're headed home already. Daddy had to get back to the store, and Mom decided to go along." She smiled sweetly. "I get to stay another week, and go home with the Johnsons." (No clues yet.) She scooped some fruit salad onto her plate. "Staying long?" she asked.
"A couple weeks." I said. Her face did look familiar.
"Cool." she said, sitting down right across from Fred. She flicked her head to get the hair out of her eyes, and I immediately recognized her. It was little Audrey Wilson! I hadn’t seen her for several years, and she had gone from a geeky adolescent with braces to looking like a super-model! I was hugely impressed!
Audrey asked Fred “When are you hooking up the satellite system?
Fred looked at me and smiled. "You'll have to ask Dave here, he's the one doin' it."
She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said, "I didn't know you knew how to do that sort of stuff!"
"Sure," I said with a wink, "I know all sorts of stuff."
Fred just grinned. Audrey graced me with one of her dazzling smiles and said, "Maybe you can teach me how to do some of that! I'd be glad to help!"
"I didn't realize you were interested in video and electronic stuff." I said, opening another beer.
She looked me with a twinkle in her eye and said with a grin, "I'm interested in lots of things."
“Well,” I said, “I’ll probably be starting on it tomorrow sometime. I’ll let you know when I start in on it.”
“Cool!” Audrey said, scooping up another fork-full of salad.