“I… I can’t even describe it,” Lorraine said to Jeremy, the phone shaking in her hand as she paced around the apartment, the phone to her ear. “He’s just…I just…”

“You’re in love with him.”

“Jeremy, no, I… I’m a grown woman, I don’t just fall in love with a man like—”

“That’s exactly what you do, Lorraine. Let your guard down a bit, and go with the flow! Stop overthinking it. But I’ll tell you what…it sounds like you’re hooked this time, like it or not.”

Lorraine’s imagination flashed on a million things. “Well, um, I don’t not like it, that’s not what I’m saying. I… I like it, Jer, I really like it! He’s gentle and understanding…the way he is with his son; I never thought I’d meet someone so bright, so generous, and so caring. I mean he didn’t have to come all the way down here, he could have easily written a cheque at a charity event and be done with it. I’ve never been so attracted to anyone in my life, Jer. It’s crazy. I don’t want to say I’m infatuated, but you might just have to slap some sense into me.” She laughed.

“That is awesome, Lorraine. You deserve it.”

“I dunno—”

“Lorraine!”

“No, I don’t mean that I don’t deserve to have love in my life—”

“What have I been saying?”

Lorraine shook her head. “No, I get that, Jeremy, I really do, and I’m trying.”

“Keep trying,” Jeremy said, “now more than ever.”

“That’s the thing. This guy’s a bajillionare or something, and he’s, well, he’s gorgeous, Jeremy. You’d flip,” Lorraine said knowing Jeremy’s taste in men.

“Then how about I take him, you crawl back under the bed, and we’ll all be happy?”

Lorraine couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t think that’s the arrangement he has in mind.”

“No, he wants you. Fiery redhead and porcelain complexion of yours. If I played for the other team, you know I’d have been all over you.”

Lorraine laughed “Jeremy, stop! I’m just some librarian from Denver, Colorado. A guy like that’s not going to settle down, and he sure wouldn’t settle for me. He must be bedding models and actresses. I’m just gonna be another conquest.”

“Um, and your problem with that is…?”

“I know, it’s…it’s not a bad deal, but…I dunno, I like him, Jeremy, and I like his son. The kid’s so hurt, y’know, but he’s so brave—such a perfect little gentleman. I’m falling for him fast; I just don’t want to put myself in a position where I get hurt.”

Jeremy sighed, and Lorraine knew what that sigh meant. “Lo’, life isn’t a fairy tale…except in my case!” They both chuckled, and Jeremy went on, “It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy the good times that happen to come along, even if they don’t last. Some things just aren’t meant to last, like a flower. Doesn’t mean they’re not beautiful.”

Lorraine knew Jeremy was right, and she wanted to embrace his wisdom. But she couldn’t help but envision a beautiful red rose rotting and blackening, dying right before her eyes, with her helpless to do anything but mourn its loss.

But once off the phone with Jeremy, Lorraine let her mind drift to happier thoughts, recollections of the day, and of her promise to Griffin. She didn’t want to break that promise and let him down.

Lorraine was already lit up from the date, from her proximity to the amazing Griffin Phoenix.

She walked into her bedroom and stripped off all her clothes in a sexy striptease. She imagined Griffin was there as she danced and gyrated to an invisible audience. She’d never really even thought about what type of fantasies she wanted to explore or even what turned her on the most. She decided to flip over her laptop for a quick exploration on a popular porn site. She browsed the categories: lesbian, threesome, bondage, until she landed on Romantic Couple.

Perfect! This will give me an idea of what I’m in for. I don’t want to look like a complete amateur!

She lay down on her bed, got comfortable, and watched as the beautiful couple in front of her on the screen started to passionately kiss. As the intensity grew, Lorraine took mental notes of the techniques that seemed to give the stud in the video the most pleasure. A combination of twisting and sucking on his long hard shaft seemed to be driving him crazy. After a few minutes she closed the tab and flipped down the screen. The fantasy of Griffin was much hotter to her.

She started imagining his tall, muscular stature, his round, broad shoulders, his beautiful face, remembering him saying all those naughty things to her. Her core was heated as she slowly slid her fingers into her slick pussy. It was dewy with her juices, clit ready to peek out for another visitation. But Lorraine’s mind was bursting with more images, all of Griffin. The sound of his voice rang in the back of her ears—the fragrant smell of his cologne, subtle and strong, just like him.

That’s right, Lorraine, she could imagine him saying, touch it just so, right there. Oh yes…

Her fingers worked in a familiar fashion, rubbing the little mound just at the top of her pussy, a frenzied waggle of her finger, the tip hardly moving at all, pressing and sending all that energy just where she wanted it, just where she liked it best.

Inside, Lorraine, put it inside!

She did as she imagined Griffin had demanded, slipping her index and middle finger between the surfaces of her slick clit, mouth gaping as she penetrated herself. Lorraine leaned back into her bed, legs up, squeezing her left tit with her free hand. She flicked her nipple, pulling at it just a bit, then worked the other nipple with little circles around the areola.

Her fingers rubbed up and down her clit, then she pushed them in just a bit deeper, and up behind the mound of her warm pussy. Her G-spot burst with a little bolt of gladness, an orgasm beginning to stir.

That’s good, Lorraine, good. You’re going to cum for me, Lorraine? You’re gonna cum for me…and I’m not even here! That’s how hot you are for me. That’s how hot you are!

Lorraine drew the tips of her inserted fingers back toward her palm, tickling the back of her mound, a vibration running down her legs and up the back of her throat.

She thought of his handsome face, imagining his big cock as it slid into her. He’d given her a tiny taste, a brief feel of that massive cock, and it was enough to tell Lorraine that she’d waited for the right man. Lorraine spread her fingers, pressure against the walls of her clit as she worked her G-spot even faster.

Minutes stretched out, Lorraine getting lost in the darkness of her imagination, of her new obsession. Hands and fingers, nipples to flick, and breasts to squeeze and a burning in her crotch that wasn’t going to be completely satisfied until he was inside it.

Forever.

* * *

After a few runs down the slope, Lorraine, Griffin and Ashe were savoring cups of hot chocolate, sweet steam rising up around her face. “Hot chocolate, I never have this. It sure is good though, kind of tastes like childhood.”

Griffin smiled and nodded from the other side of the little round table. She knew what he was thinking about, and Lorraine struggled to keep her mind off it too: his promise, which came closer with every second. Lorraine felt almost indecent thinking of it while in young Ashe’s presence.

“Shame Mrs. B. didn’t want to come along.”

Griffin nodded. “Not a skier.”

“No, I…I guess I can see that. But she could come out of the lodge and have some cocoa.”

“I think maybe she’s keeping a respectful distance.”

Respectful of what? Lorraine almost asked, but stopped herself just in time and was desperately glad. And it was time to change the subject again.

“Hey,” Lorraine said, “look at all this snow, and there’re no snowmen! That’s not fair.” Lorraine crossed to a perfect patch of snow near the lodge. Griffin and Ashe followed her, and Lorraine began rolling the big bottom ball of snow. “It’s really easy; I’ve been doing this ever since I was a kid. The snow just kind of sticks together, and you roll it until it’s about the right size.”

Griffin joined Lorraine, the two of them rolling the increasingly heavy ball of snow until it was big enough and round enough, patting it down and turning to Ashe. Griffin asked, “Give us a hand, son?”

The boy was quick to nod, even smiling. The three of them worked together to create a smaller, second snowball. Griffin and Lorraine locked eyes, his silent gratitude and admiration ripe in his crystal-blue eyes. She wanted to kiss him, and she felt the magnetic pull of their mutual attraction. But in the boy’s company, a simple and sweet smile was enough, even better in some ways.

Lorraine could still imagine what that kiss would be like when it finally happened, and what it would lead to.

But Lorraine pushed it out of her mind as they raised the second ball onto the first. “Okay, one more ball for the head.”

They rolled a third ball and planted it onto the other two, other patrons looking on with warm smiles. Another family trotted up to make a similar snowman, not far off. “Great,” Griffin said, “the more the merrier!”

Lorraine looked their snowman over. “Ashe, you’re into Hollywood, movies, that kind of thing, right?” Ashe nodded. “I was never so much into movies, but I always liked books, still do. I think that’s why I wound up working in a library.”

Ashe nodded and shrugged, silently agreeing.

“So this guy here,” Lorraine said, gesturing to the snowman, “he could really be the star of his own movie, right, or book or whatever?” Ashe nodded again. “So what kind of character is this; what kind of story would he be in?”

“Comedy,” Griffin said. “He’s too fat to be an action hero.”

Lorraine laughed, and even Ashe broke out in a little chuckle. Griffin and Lorraine both noticed, but neither said anything, cautious not to thwart their progress.

Lorraine said, “Okay, a comedy. Let’s say he falls in love with a…a beautiful young woman.”

Griffin smiled. “Okay, let’s say he does. Let’s say he fell in love with her the moment he laid eyes on her.”

Lorraine choked back a romantic sigh. “Right, but she’s a human and he’s a…a snowman.”

“That’s the classic story,” Griffin said, winking at Ashe. “Snowman falls in love with a pretty librarian…”

“I didn’t say she was a librarian.”

Griffin shrugged. “Just struck me, that’s all.”

“Okay, um, let’s say she is a librarian. And maybe she likes him too…a lot. I guess she fell in love with him too, but she was too nervous to say anything.”

“But she didn’t need to,” Griffin said. “He knows how she feels, and he couldn’t have been happier about it. And she didn’t need to worry about a thing, because this snowman, he’s…he’s not like other snowmen. He understands that she’s had some challenges, reasons that she keeps herself hidden away in her tower of books. And all he wants to do is bring her the joy she deserves.” Griffin leaned forward, just a bit closer to her, tantalizingly close. “And he will.”

The snowball hit Griffin’s face, smashing against all his charm and seduction, a clump of icy powder to fall down his cheek, leaving him stunned if not injured. He looked over at Ashe, Lorraine doing the same.

Ashe was crackling with laughter, pointing at his father, almost delirious with mischief. Griffin and Lorraine glanced at one another, a slow smile creeping across Griffin’s handsome face.

She knew what she had to do.

Ashe was quick to turn and run, Griffin and Lorraine both scooping up handfuls of snow, compacting them even as they stumbled toward their spry little quarry. Lorraine planted her snowball into the center of Ashe’s back and it fell away harmlessly.

Griffin said, “That’s my son!” Soon enough, he turned his snowball on Lorraine, landing it on Lorraine’s chest.

Lorraine said, “No, you didn’t!” From that point on it was a free-for-all, snowballs flying this way and that, other people even joining in the fray until it was a virtual snowball Armageddon.

Lorraine couldn’t ignore a creeping feeling, and she looked up to see Mrs. B. staring at them from an upstairs window of the lodge. She was frowning, and staring directly at Lorraine in a way that sent chills down her spine.

But through it all, Ashe just kept laughing—a sparkling, rolling sound, filling Lorraine’s heart with a relief she could almost understand. It was as if Ashe’s laughter was her own, his relief was hers. And it sounded so good in Lorraine’s ears, and felt so good in her heart, that it became so good in her throat, a silly giggle bubbling up out of her surprised lips.

Griffin laughed too—a big, hearty, authentic laugh that was jovial in nature. It struck Lorraine in a sad way that Griffin’s and Ashe’s laughter was so grateful and unusual, so rarified. She knew they deserved better, and that she might be just the person to bring them the one thing they needed.

Joy.

But that was something Lorraine Devonshire had gone without for too long herself.

Lorraine asked herself, How can I give what I don’t even have?

But Griffin’s silent stare, so deep and calm, answered Lorraine’s question for her. It’s not something you can have alone. We have to create it…together.

And we will.