Their Virgin Neighbor Read Free Page A

still
alive. Still had a future ahead of them when so many did
not…
    “ Might as well be gay,”
Jack said after a moment. “Not like there’s much else going on
round here in that department.”
    Lee snorted. “You’re not my type, my
friend.”
    “ I’m everyone’s
type.”
    Silence settled for a moment as the
two men ate their lunches. Once they were finished Jack made
another pot of coffee before turning the conversation back to their
new neighbor.
    “ So,” he said. “We should
head down and introduce ourselves. She’s on our land. She’s going
to be here for the entire winter and we should check on her, make
sure she’s okay at least.”
    “ What’s her name again?”
Lee asked.
    “ Anna.”
    Anna … how old was she, Lee wondered. Forty? Fifty? “And Sally
said that she was what?” he asked trying to recall the conversation
they’d had with the realtor. “Planning to spend the winter here to
get over a death?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ Who? A
husband?”
    Jack shrugged. “Not sure. Didn’t
really ask to be honest.”
    It was bound to be a husband. Lee
frowned. He had quite a bit of experience in dealing with grief and
it was not an area he wanted to visit again any time soon. He
imagined a middle-aged lady, teary eyed and in pain, maybe offering
them cookies or a homemade meal. The very idea made him
wince.
    “ Maybe you should head
down,” he said. “Take care of it yourself.”
    Jack pushed his plate away and took a
long swig of his coffee. “Maybe getting away from your paints and
clay will do you some good. We can head to the store first, pick up
some supplies.”
    “ Jalapeños, you
mean.”
    “ Yeah that too.” Jack
grinned. “We’ll go visit her on the way back. Maybe she’ll give you
enough of a diversion that you’ll be glad I dragged you
along.”
    Lee snorted. “An elderly widow? I
doubt that.”
    “ Did Sally say she was
elderly?” Jack asked.
    “ No, I just
assumed.”
    “ Not many elderly women
would live here for a winter,” Jack said slowly. “You know how
brutal they are.” He paused. “I think she might just surprise
us.”
    “ I never liked
surprises.”
    Jack laughed. “Me and you both, my
friend, me and you both.”
     
     
    .

Chapter Three
     
    The woods next to her little cottage
were something special. Anna had spent the past fortnight exploring
them, and every time she had found something different to captivate
her. Trees that had lost all their leaves, wrapped in an early
frost. Old nests, once full of eggs and flapping things, now
nothing more than a bundle of lifeless sticks.
    She’d walked from one end to the
other, maybe fifteen miles or so in all, and each time Anna had
found a peace in herself that had been absent ever since Grand’s
death. Alone in the woods, no one to be seen for miles, just the
odd shuffle and rustle from an animal, she could be comfortable
with her grief in a way that she hadn’t been before now.
    She sighed as she rounded the corner
of one huge tree she had named Mary. It had been her way of keeping
a track on where she was. One after the other the trees had been
given the names of the women she had grown up with in her life.
Grand’s tree was at the very far end of the forest. That made sense
to Anna. Grand should be the hardest to reach. The one sitting
above it all.
    She smiled slightly and started the
walk that would lead her all the way to the Sally tree. It was the
one closest to the house and had a lovely russet-red trunk. It kind
of reminded Anna of the realtor, so why not name it after
her?
    Anna’s smile widened as she imagined
telling her city friends about her jaunts through the forest.
They’d been shocked enough when she’d told them she was moving to
the cottage for the winter, but she doubted they’d realized just
how remote it was or how little there was to do. In the past week
Anna had explored the local area, including the small grouping of
stores in the town. There was a general store that sold