When It Snows Ch. 02

"We need to get a dirt box and kitty litter," I said, meaning she needed to get them as I was completely boracic.

"We'll go out shopping once my other guests arrive," Shirley said with a beaming smile adorning her face as she put her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek, "But first I need to change this blouse."

There were a couple of buttons missing and the delicate silk weave was torn, too. It looked expensive and was completely ruined. She had kept her jacket tightly buttoned up while we sorted out my registration at the reception.

"Shirl, I'm so sorry about your blouse, guess I got carried away."

She pressed her semi-naked body to me and kissed me long and hard on the lips. She felt so warm to my fingers which hadn't quite acclimatised to the hothouse environment of that suite.

"Don't worry, hon, I think we both did for a while there," she breathed in my ear.

As she walked into the bedroom, her words sunk in. I'm sure I used to be quite bright at one time, old age must be creeping up on me.

"Other guests?"

"Wait and see," came her disembodied voice from the other room.

What do I do now? I'm standing in the sitting room like a stuffed lemon, holding a conversation with my ex-wife standing in her bedroom. I know we have just been intimate very recently, extremely fucking intimate, extremely fucking recently, but we were a long time not married to one another and I have actually only seen her even partially naked for a few minutes after six years apart. With her married to some other fucker. I can't just walk into her boudoir uninvited, now can I?

And what the hell does she mean by other guests? Who are they? Where the fuck does that leave me? We haven't really discussed what I'm even doing here, for crying out loud. Shirley hinted at perhaps making love a third time. Yeah, I would remember that, wouldn't I? We seem to just be taking this thing one step at a time but I thought I had already made it clear that I didn't want to get back together with her. However, as only women can do, she appears to have just ignored what I want and is doing exactly what she wants to do. So are we going to have a quickie before her other guests arrive? What are our sleeping arrangements tonight, am I in her bedroom, on the couch, or out the door?

And why the fuck did she insist on Piddles coming along, anyway? I know I missed half of what Shirley was saying back at the flat as well as on the way here, I think I was still in a state of shock, but when did I agree to all this?

I looked at the plastic room key in my hand and shook my head. She was still rabbiting on at me from the other room. Again I had completely lost track of what she was saying. I think over the last couple of years I had been so much on my own that I seem to have lost any social interacting skills I may once have enjoyed.

I thought fuck propriety, I'm just going to walk in her bedroom, put my fucking foot down and find out what the fuck is going on and where the fuck I stand. I am going in there now. Right fucking now. I am standing up and I am about to go in. What's she saying now? Fuck, I'm just going in there right now!

I'm in her bedroom. Fuck!

There she was, sitting prettily on the biggest fucking bed I had ever seen in my entire life, putting on a new pair of sheer stockings. Man, those legs are to die for. It occurred to me that I must have ruined the other pair of stockings along with her blouse, which she had also changed. This blouse was a pale and subtle shade of pink. She looked a million dollars just sitting there.

Standing on the bed next to her, arching his back and rubbing his side affectionately up against her back, was Piddles, miraculously transformed from a homicidal feral wildcat to a lap-loving fluffy pussycat ... except where I am concerned, of course, the old animosities endured.

One good thing from this incident, I thought. It does look like I've finally managed to offload that fucking cat. I had thought I was stuck with the fucker for life, well, my life rather than his, he must have six or seven left to my one. I was intending to leave him all my worldly goods, although not now that the bastard clearly knew when he was onto a good thing. That set me thinking was I on a good thing here or not?

Then I realised that I had missed what Shirley was saying to me, yet again. Damn!

"Sorry, Shirl," I said by way of explanation of my utter denseness, "I think I must be in a state of shock and finding it almost impossible to concentrate. You must think I am a complete ignoramus. I have been on my own for so long that I seem to have lost both sides of the art of conversation, both listening and making coherent sentences."

Shirley laughed her delicious laugh and, as soon as she smacked her second elasticated stocking top against her firm thigh, a simple action that will probably fill my obsessive dreams for weeks to come, she rose and put her arms around me and pulled me into another toe-curling kiss.

"I think you standing there, looking all bashful and a little unsure of yourself is both sweet and extremely endearing, sweetheart," she breathed, having tenderised my tongue for fully two minutes, until all my nerve-endings were on fire and I thanked my lucky stars that my sweatpants were really really fucking loose, if they had fit me properly I might have had some serious circulation problems to deal with. "I am so hot for you right now I would jump your bones again if I thought we had anywhere near enough time."

I thought Piddles might have been jealous of me right at that very moment, but a glance in his direction confirmed that he was unconcernedly licking his arse, again. Clearly he didn't consider me much of a rival for his new mistress's affections.

I really thought about licking Shirley's arse for a few seconds there, but then came a voice from the direction of the sitting room to curtail any lascivious thoughts emerging from the primordial swamp of my mind.

"Hi Mum, we're home!" called a female voice from the other room.

Shirley smiled at me.

"Come on, honey," she said, "This is going to be such fun!"

Shirley led me through to the sitting room. There I could see my daughter Katherine, six years older, filled out a little but very recognisable, still with her coat on hunched over a number of shopping bags.

"We have a guest with us, Kat," Shirley said.

Katherine looked up and blinked, suddenly recognising me and her mouth dropped open.

"Dad!" she screamed and ran over to me, throwing herself into my arms, "What are you doing here?"

She held me so tightly, fit to bursting. I felt wetness on my cheek again, this was really becoming a habit today. Before this morning I thought I was the only one in my family who had anything to cry about.

"Where did you spring from? We have missed you so much, Dad."

Over her shoulder I saw a small blond-haired child emerge from the doorway at the other end of the room, no doubt curious about his mother's outcry. His outdoor coat was undone and hanging off his shoulders, although he still had thick gloves on which seemed to be preventing the coat from falling to the floor. His shoes were off and he stood in his stockinged feet.

He looked more than a little bewildered at what was going on. Join the club pal, I thought, me too.

It suddenly occurred to me that I could be a Granddad. I hadn't expected that. There appeared to be no other explanation for the presence of the little person in the suite. I had to confirm it, though, somehow.

"So, who's this little fellow?" I said, as casually as I could manage, giving my poker face another airing. They say practice makes perfect. I wasn't confident it was working all that well.

Katherine looked at me with a huge grin on her face.

"This, Dad," she said, "Is Alex Junior, your Grandson!"

She didn't say "Da-daaaa!" like a circus ringmaster exactly but the way she said "Grandson" was just as theatrical. My god, I was a grandad, and had been for a couple of years at least, apparently.

"Hello, Alex," I said, letting go of Katherine and getting down on my haunches, "I am your Granddad. How old are you?"

"I'm 3," he said with a cute smile, "Are you really my Granddad?"

"I am, do you want to come and say hello?"

He stood there a little uncertainly.

"Go on," Katherine urged him, "Give your Granddad a big hug, he's been waiting a long time to see you."

"OK," he said jauntily and without hesitation came up to me holding out his arms and I hugged him and squeezed him, then I tickled him with a single finger in each hand and he sat down and rolled on his back on the thick-carpeted floor, giggling and laughing, shouting out,

"No, Granddad, no tickle me, no!"

I carried on tickling him, though, I was braver with little boys than I was with my own furry pussy cat. His giggling was infectious and soon all of us were laughing our heads off. Alex went very red and got very hot in all the excitement, so I thought he'd probably had enough. He still had his coat and gloves on, and his Grandmother, or "Nanny" as he called her, picked him up and carried him through to his Mum's bedroom to change him.

"He's absolutely lovely, Kat," I said, holding my daughter's hands in mine, "You must be so proud of him."

"We are." Katherine paused for a while before continuing, "I am so sorry we didn't invite you to the wedding, Alex and I, but at that time I wasn't aware of the circumstances of the divorce and I ... I blamed you for the break-up. It was only recently that Mum sat me down and explained what happened and took all the blame. By then I had no idea where you were."

I smiled at her and kissed her hand. We were sitting on the settee by then, and could hear Alex and his Nanny chattering away merrily in the other room. I heard the word Granddad mentioned a couple of times in the exchanges.

"Tell me about his father," I asked Katherine.

"Alex Brownlow, he's 30, eight years older than me. He's a captain in the Royal Marines and currently based out in Afghanistan on his third tour there, due back home in late June or early July. We are based in Plymouth barracks officer quarters, but since Alex has been away I have preferred to stay with Mum. It's good company for both of us, and good for Alex to have both of us sharing the child-rearing. Both Alex's parents have passed on."

"So what are you doing here on the coast?"

"Mum wanted to move out of Henry's house, you know, bad memories, fresh start and all that. Plymouth would have been a logical starting place to look but Alex needs to decide in two years' time whether to sign on again for another tour, with perhaps an opportunity for promotion to Major or Lieutenant-Colonel rank in the offering or to take retirement. There are some good deals for taking early retirement that are worth considering.

"Mum had fond memories of coming here to the old resort. She says you both even considered a holiday home here if you could ever afford it, so here we are, staying for a week and planning on trawling around the estate agents to see if anything suitable for Mum turns up. Why are you here?"

"Same reason as your Mum, really," I said, "Always had fond memories of this place. Once the family home was sold and I was at a loose end, I invested everything I had in a cafe here, which has since failed. Then I worked in a timber yard for a little while and been out of work virtually all winter."

"Well, you two seem to be talking to one another ... or better ..." she grinned wickedly, "Having seen you both come out of Mum's bedroom with guilty looks on your faces. Any chance of us being a family again, Dad?"

"I honestly don't know, Kat, honey," I answered, shaking my head, "I haven't heard from either of you in six years and I am still trying to get a handle on these new circumstances. I want you and I to be as close as possible from now on, of course. As for your Mum and me? Well, there's something still there between us all right but to make it work it's down to trust more than anything and we are going to have to tread very carefully."

"Mum loves you," she said quietly, "When we sat down a couple of months ago after Henry died, to clear up any misunderstandings about you and her, she admitted that what Henry just did to Mum was more or less the same as what Mum did to you. I didn't know at the time, it had all been left unsaid and I made the wrong assumptions. I thought it was always the man who was unfaithful, but of course there's always got to be both a man and a woman at the centre of it. Whatever happens between you and Mum, though, I want you involved in our lives, in Alex Junior's life and to meet my Alex just as soon as he gets home."

"Honey, of course I want to be in your lives," I said, putting my arms around her again and kissing her on the forehead. "Your Mum and I may still have issues, but we will sort them out quietly between us, Kat. Even if your Mum and I end up living apart, we both want to remain on speaking terms as well as taking full part in family activities together."

"I love you Dad."

"You too, precious."

Grandma and grandson came back into the sitting room again and left just as quickly as Alex ran into the other bedroom calling out, "Pussycat, pussycat!"

"Sorry Baz, I don't know your cat's name." puffed Shirley as she tried to catch up with the little bundle of energy.

"Piddles," I yelled to Shirley's shapely behind as it disappeared from view.

She turned back almost immediately.

"We can't call him Piddles!" she protested, "Whatever made you call him that?"

"He used to piddle in the corner of the flat when I tried to feed him anything other than tinned tuna, the bloody thing is spoiled rotten."

"Hush, Dad," Katherine said, "You can't say bloody either around here."

"I've called that cat much-flippin' worse."

"It's not the cat I'm worried about, Alex picks up all the bad words if you give him half a chance."

"Sorry, I was forgetting. I will try, though, honest, Kat."

"Fair enough."

I listened to hear if any screams were emanating from Shirley's bedroom, but it seemed peaceful, too bloody peaceful for my liking. I got up from that comfy sofa, walked up to and cautiously through the bedroom doorway.

There was Piddles, flat on his back on the bed, being tickled by both Shirley and Alex and I could swear that bloody cat had a smile of its face, throatily purring like a Maserati ticking over before the big race. Perhaps it was only me the bastard used to bite and tear to shreds. I decided not to move any closer, it was almost certainly monitoring my position by its sense of smell.

Katherine and I went back and exchanged small talk on the settee for a while before Shirley decided it was time to go to lunch.

"Have I got time for a quick shower and change?" I asked.

"Sure," Shirley replied with a warm smile, "There's an en suite in our bedroom, honey. Want me to scrub your back, sweetheart?"

"Not if you want lunch rather than supper," I retorted, not failing to miss her subtle reference to "our bedroom".

"OK, you win, this time," as she feigned disappointment.

Katherine just laughed, "You guys, honestly, I'd tell you to get a room, but you've already got one and I'm as hungry as hell."