In a Forest Glade

It had always been a tradition to take his son and his buddies camping during the summer.

It was fun, showing them the ways of the wild, teaching them to become men.

And then the boys got interested in girls: ah well, nothing ever stays simple, doesn't it?

Cautionary: romance, only heterosexual, no kinky stuff, and any sexual activity is between those over 18.

In a Forest Glade

Prelude

Davin's wife had been a city girl born and bred. Settling down in the suburbs, instead of in the inner city, had been a big concession for her. He himself would have preferred a home in the country side, but hey, he loved her, so he made a concession too. Then they got Mike, and when the boy started primary school Davin decided it was time to introduce his son to the great outdoors he himself grew up in. From then on he had organized camping trips into the mountains, once every summer.

His wife hadn't been keen on joining them, which wasn't much of a surprise, but she hadn't minded for the two of them to enjoy a couple weeks of 'man' time either. That first trip he had introduced Mike to the skills his own father had taught him when he was his age; fishing, hunting, tracking, living off the land in general, and young Mike had loved all of it. The third summer they planned this a couple of his friends from school had wanted to go with them. So he had contacted their parents, who had turned out to be very keen to have someone looking after their kids for a couple of weeks, sparing them from having to send their boys to summer camp.

That third summer their little camping group had grown from two to four, and it would stay like that all through primary school, except for the final year. That last year turned into the worst year of his life, because it was the year he lost his wife in a car accident. That year there hadn't been a camping trip. Then high school had come, and with his primary school friends still with him, and with the worst grief processed, they had simply picked up where they had left off two years before. A few more fun camping summers passed, and then there had been this little hiccup...

Gearing Up

Not long after the beginning of the school year. as 18 year olds are wont to do, Mike had got himself a girlfriend, a dream of a girl named Kim, short for Kimberley. It was a quiet evening, about a month before the summer holiday, and she was upstairs with Mike, as she had been so many times before that year. Officially the two of them were doing homework in his room together, yeah right... He had been watching the news when she came into the living room, alone. He hadn't noticed her before she started speaking. "Hi Mr Trevena," she said, "We.., I.., we would like to go camping with you this summer, with you and Mike and the other boys I mean."

She had surprised him, both with her sudden appearance and with her request, and he just stared at her for a moment, taking in her lovely shoulder length blonde curls, her deep turquoise eyes, and her stunningly beautiful face. He had been wondering how his just average looking son had managed to hook up with her from the first time he ever laid eyes on her about half a year earlier. "Who's we?" he asked in return. And so he found out that Mike's buddies, apparently, had also got themselves girlfriends, and that these girlfriends didn't want to be left behind when their boyfriends went camping for three weeks that summer either.

Now Davin certainly understood their wish, but he sure as hell wasn't going to take responsibility for three teenage girls. He told Kim that if she and the other two girls wanted to come along they needed to coerce one of their mothers into chaperoning them for three weeks. He sort of expected that to be the last he ever heard of it, but to his surprise, a couple of weeks later, and just a good week before the planned camping trip, he got a phone call from this nice sounding woman. She turned out to be Samantha Bradford, the mother of Kim.

Samantha told him that, because he didn't want to take the girls along without their own supervisor, something she absolutely understood, her daughter had been nagging her to come along with them for weeks. So if it was okay with him, she and the girls would be accompanying them on their camping trip.

***

Damn! was the first thought that crossed Davin's mind. He really hadn't expected any of these suburban housewives to be willing to risk the great outdoors, and to be honest, he wasn't looking forward to introducing one to those great outdoors either. He could already hear the nagging about the missing amenities. He had sort of promised Kim though, that she and the other girls could join them on their trip if they managed to get one of their mothers to join them. Double damn! But he was a man of his word... Not all was yet lost though, he realized.

He had always considered taking a bunch of kids out into the great outdoors a serious responsibility, so before agreeing to anything he needed to ascertain this mom was up to the task, now didn't he? "You do realize there isn't going to be a bathroom, don't you?" he started off with. There was laughing at the other end of the line, fuck she had a nice laugh. She then told him she used to go camping with her parents a lot when she was a kid herself, and also went a couple of times with Kim when her daughter was still in primary school. So while she hadn't been camping recently, she certainly wasn't a novice where the subject was concerned.

With that obstacle out of the way he started her on the practical stuff. He told her that while tents and cooking gear wouldn't be a problem, she and the girls would need to supply their own personal camping gear, and also their own transportation. "No problem," was the short answer he got.

Yeah right, he thought, but your MPV isn't going to climb those mountain trails. So he explained to her that she would be needing a serious four wheel drive vehicle to get where they were going, again expecting for that to be the end of it,

"A Ranger double cab 4x4 serious enough?" the reply came.

In a suburb where the majority of dads drove some posh German four door saloon, and the majority of mums an equally posh MPV, he had clearly underestimated the Bradford family... This left him with no choice but to tell her that, on condition that she and the girls showed up with all the necessary personal camping gear, for which he would be providing a list, they were welcome to join them on their trip. And then, after the connection had cut off, he started wondering what he had gotten himself into...

***

A week later, just two days before they would be leaving for the trip, he was at the dojo for his last pre-vacation Ju Jitsu training. When he announced he wouldn't be attending for the next three weeks the rest of the small group wanted to know why of course, so he told them that he would be away on his yearly camping trip, which resulted in a lot of interest and questioning. Inevitably the fact that some girls would be joining their regular group came up of course, which resulted, as he should have expected, in some grins and comments about 'boys getting lucky'.

He countered by telling them that Mrs. Bradford, one of the girls' mothers, would be coming along to keep an eye on the girls, which, as he also should have expected of course, resulted in even bigger grins, and comments about 'single dads getting lucky'. He countered that one by informing them that he sure wasn't planning on seducing a married woman. Bill and John, two of his Ju Jitsu buddies, looked at each other shortly, and then Bill spoke up, "Sammy Bradford.., daughter named Kim?"

The chances on two Samantha Bradfords with a daughter of that name living in one and the same neighborhood were close to non-existent of course, "Yeah?" he answered warily.

Bill started laughing, and John just winked and said, "That would be Miss Bradford then..." The remark sure resulted in a lot of, well meant, hilarity all around.

Bill then chimed in once more, "Don't you worry, I'm sure you'll be able to restrain yourself." Which resulted in John nearly having a fit, which led him to the conclusion she must be a real cow then.

On the road

That Saturday the alarm went off at eight. Mike had helped him load up the H3 the evening before, in order for them to be able to leave early. So they got up, had a good breakfast, and then did some final checks, making sure everything was in order and they didn't forget anything. About a quarter to nine Mike's two friends turned up, as usual. After saying goodbye to their parents they quickly stashed their stuff in the back of the Hummer, then they waited for the girls to arrive. The boys were eager for sure which, he decided, was reward enough already.

Just before nine o'clock a dark blue Ford Ranger turned into the driveway, and it wasn't what he had expected. What he had expected was this gleaming stock truck that never saw any 'terrain' other than the speed bumps between the local mall and the driveway it lived on. This one, though, was muddy, far from scratch free, and equipped with everything, from heavy duty under body protection plates to a built in winch. Surprised he took in the truck while joyous girls started to spill out through its doors. The thing even had a friggin' snorkel...

Davin had always been convinced the snorkel on his H3 was the only snorkel in, at least, a five mile radius. His biggest surprise was still to come though, and it came in the form of Miss Samantha Bradford herself. He watched her climb out of the cab, and boy had he been wrong. The good news was that she was stunningly beautiful, the bad news was that she was way too stunningly beautiful, and about a decade too young, for an ugly old geezer like him. He managed to recover relatively quickly, hopefully before she noticed him having to pick up his proverbial jaw from the lawn. Of course she's beautiful, you loon, he thought, how could she not be, with a daughter as beautiful as Kim.

The goddess walked up towards him, stretched out a hand, "Hi, Samantha Bradford, but please, just call me Sammy."

He took her hand, still drinking her in, and trying to be not too obvious about it. "Hi, I'm Davin, Mike's dad. Nice truck you have there..."

She rose on her toes and looked over his shoulder to where the Hummer was parked, and grinned, "Yeah, right..."

She thinks you're joking. He shook his head, "I mean it, you've all the necessary equipment installed, just like mine; it looks great."

That got him a proud smile, "Well, thank you then."

He nodded, "And by the looks of it, you know how to use it too."

She shrugged, "It's a hobby, but I've never been further away with it than the local off-road track."

The fact that she didn't just own a well-equipped 4x4 but apparently also knew how to handle one sure was a big plus. He threw her a big smile, "Well, let's take a quick look at the girls' camping gear then, and then we'll see how you manage the real stuff..." He first checked the girls' sleeping mats and, most important, their sleeping bags. Next he and Samantha checked the camping gear list he had provided together, mainly clothing and supplies. Once everything was checked, and found satisfactory, they got on the road. Ten minutes later they were leaving the suburbs behind, cruising down the highway towards the mountains on the far horizon.

***

About an hour on the highway, then an hour or two on trails, saw them deep into the mountains. It was just past noon when he turned off the trail and parked the Hummer at the forest glade that was their usual camp-site. The Ranger came to a stop a couple of yards behind the H3, and he watched her climb out once more. He had kept an eye on her while they were driving up the trail, and she had done rather well for a first-timer. He walked towards her, grinning, "Well done, young lady." She didn't seem to hear him, clearly too distracted by the forest around them.

He had parked in the half shadow of the trees, and the moist forest air created a shower of golden light all around them. Her head just kept turning as she took in the surroundings, and streaks of sunlight set her mahogany brown hair afire, making her turquoise eyes light up like gemstones. Her voice sounded mesmerized, "What a beautiful place."

Not half as beautiful as you are, he thought, but she was right of course. The glade was a green oasis surrounded by pristine forest and bordering a crystal clear, creek-fed pond: it was stunningly beautiful indeed. When she finally focused on him he pointed at the remains of last year's fireplace, "That's where the center of our camp is going to be. We'll start with laying out all the groundsheets in a circle around it, avoiding any low spots because that's where rainwater might gather." Half an hour later four groundsheets formed a crude circle some twenty yards across.

The biggest one belonged to his own large tent, which would not only sleep him but also store most of the group's gear and supplies. Going clockwise from his own tent there was first the sheet belonging to the two person igloo that would sleep Mike and Justin, then, roughly opposite his own tent, a medium sized sheet belonging to the larger tent the girls would be using, and then the sheet belonging to the other two person igloo that Brett would be sleeping in. He grinned, Brett snored a bit now and then, but he was also the fearless one of the bunch, so he didn't mind sleeping alone.

Davin pulled his own tent out of its sack, then waited for the boys to finish putting up their igloos, the large tent being too big to erect without any help. While waiting he studied the women folk, grinning. They were trying to erect the medium sized tunnel tent he had provided them with, and they clearly weren't too experienced. The boys joined him soon, and when they did he dispatched Brett to save the women folk from the tangled mess they'd gotten themselves into by now, then started to put up his own tent with Mike and Justin's assistance.

***

A good hour later, with all the tents firmly standing, and all the gear stored away inside them, he tasked the boys with the digging of two latrines, one for the 'men' at the usual location, and one for the 'ladies' on the opposite side of the camp from it. Once they were on their merry way he gathered the girls and, with their help, deployed the great tarp over a small clearing between some large trees next to the campsite, creating an area for cooking and eating in rainy weather. While orchestrating the girls' efforts he couldn't help his eyes from wandering to Samantha time and again.

How on earth is it possible for a nice woman as good looking as she is to still be unmarried, he thought, she must have a boyfriend, but what boyfriend in his right mind would let a woman like her go on a camping trip with another man for three weeks... He simply couldn't make any sense of it. That was when he noticed one of the girls, a honey blonde little vixen named Cathy, was watching him watching Samantha. He felt caught, felt himself blush, and the little vixen winked at him, smiling, then turned and resumed helping the other girls pulling up the tarp. Damn, he thought, you'll have to be more careful in the future.

The lay of the land

Samantha lent back against one of the massive trees the tarp was hanging from and watched Davin set up the BBQ while the girls were buzzing around him. Mike's father had been the number one conversation subject with her friends, Becky and Jill, from the first moment she had let slip she was going on this camping trip. They had both known him, and been quick to tell her he wasn't divorced, like she thought he was, but that his wife had died in a horrible accident some years earlier. The next couple of days Jill hadn't stopped telling her what a nice guy he was, and Becky hadn't stopped adding that, unfortunately though, he wasn't good looking and was also much too old for her.

She watched his muscular frame move. He indeed didn't have the looks of a Tom Cruise, he looked more weathered, more like someone that would play a tough guy in some old Spaghetti Western. If Kim hadn't gotten it wrong he was also over a decade her senior, but he sure didn't look that old. She thought back at the men she had had relationships with since the "hunk" that got her pregnant dumped her. There had never been a shortage of good looking men courting her afterwards; being a pretty girl clearly compensated for being a single mom.

The fact that now, many years later, she was still a single mom told much about selecting men by their looks though. She swallowed, he wasn't ugly, far from it, and he seemed to be a guy you could rely on, a treat she was really longing for by now. Those good looking guys can get as many pretty women as they like, she thought, they're bound to cheat... The object of her interest moved to the other side of the BBQ, their eyes met, and he smiled boyishly. Samantha felt a tingle in her belly. It pleasantly surprised her, and for a moment she didn't know how to respond.

By the time she did the boys loudly announced their return, attracting his attention, and making him miss her return smile. It was just past two by now and the boys reacted enthusiastically when Davin proposed going for a walk to show the newcomers their surroundings. She watched Davin get a rifle from the Hummer and sling it across his back, then they got under way. They started off along the bank of the creek, the boys leading the way, with the girls all over them. "Is the rifle necessary?" she asked, not able to keep a hint of anxiety from her voice.

Davin smiled, "Yes and no. In all the years I have been coming here with Mike we've never run into anything dangerous, like a bear or a wolf or a mountain lion. And we have never run into any dangerous two legged animals either. But you never know, we are in the great outdoors, so you have to be prepared."

She nodded, feeling less anxious already. "And that thing will stop a bear?"

He grinned, "Yep, this is a Marlin Guide Gun in 45-70" He pointed at the awfully big looking bullets a band fixed around the rifle's stock was holding, "These boys will drop an elephant if need be. And this isn't the only gun we have with us, the boys have rifles too, and they know how to use them, I taught them myself. So if things go bump in the night you just scream, and the cavalry will be with you in no time."

The thought eased her mind considerably. City girl, she scolded herself.

The younger people were clearly having fun while she and Davin followed a discrete ten yards or so behind them. At some point she started to notice this soft rumbling noise coming from somewhere ahead of them. "There's a waterfall around the bend," Davin answered her unasked question, while pointing ahead, "We call it the big shower." Five minutes later she found herself standing at its foot, looking up a ten yard drop.

***

Samantha took in the thundering downpour in awe, "You guys use that for a shower?"

Davin grinned, "No, that would be way too dangerous. You never know what the water brings with it. Rocks, trees..." He nodded to where the water cascaded further down through a couple of small basins, "Those are the bath tubs, and the 'showers' feeding those are much safer."

The water sparkled invitingly in the sunlight, "Is the water warm?" she heard herself ask.

He grinned, "What do you think, city girl..."

She punched him in the side softly, "You awful man..."