The Village

Seth’s Perspective

Max broke the silence, “we want kids, but we’ve got way too much going on with the candle business, Brody’s career, and The Village right now.”

“Same” I answered. “Plus, we just took on a butt load of debt.” Four out of five of us were buzzed as the talked turned to having kids, etc. Max and I were in the same camp, we both wanted to raise families but not yet. The conversation turned to options… surrogacy, adoption, etc. “After being part of The Village Zach and I think we’d rather adopt.”

Max echoed my sentiment “us too. There are so many kids that need and deserve a good home.”

“You should both become foster parents” Mrs. J said adding her two cents. “It’s extremely fulfilling and neither of you are strangers to taking in people in need. I know a lot of families that ended up adopting their foster children.” She talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly. She knew a lot about the subject and got us thinking. Of course, BA was happy as hell we were talking about kids at all and took every opportunity to push the idea along and made the claim that she was the Grammaw to any “baby of The Village.” The conversation was kind of deep, way deeper than I expected on Picklin’ Day.

“Jesus BA, I’m giving you two grandbabies, lay off the boys already” Gina said changing the subject. That lightened things up a bit.

“Speakin’ of my grandbaby, where is my lil’ Mag-pie today?” BA asked.

“Her daddy and Uncle Brody took her to the aquarium and then the waterpark” Gina answered.

As the day went on, we continued to pickle and talk, the moonshine did its job and we were all feeling less and less pain. At one point, BA came up behind me and looked at what I was putting in the jars then smacked me on the ass “Doin’ good for your first time.” We worked (and drank) for several hours, by late afternoon we were drunk off our asses. The jars were full, the kitchen was a mess, and we were hanging out on the porch talking and laughing when Dylan and Brody drove up with Maggie in Gina’s SUV. Gina went to greet them and came back with Maggie in her arms for BA to fawn over. Dylan and Brody followed behind with bags full of KFC (a Picklin’ Day tradition).

A few minutes later Daddy and Zach drove up in Daddy’s pick-up with The Green Dragon on the trailer behind it. I stood up and stumbled the few feet to the porch rail and stood there as the guys made their way to us. When Zach got to the steps I asked, “What’s wrong with my baby?”

“Daddy says it needs an alternator, and probably a battery” Zach said.

“I just gave her a quick once over” Daddy added. “I’ll take her back to the shop, hook her up to the scanner, then get her on the rack so I can give you a better diagnosis. She’s an old lady, Seth. Shit’s gonna go wrong.” He was right, I had been pretty lucky with that car, six years and only a few problems along the way. Zach had been pushing me to get something newer for a while, I just wasn’t ready. I didn’t like seeing her up on that trailer.

“I’ll drive the pick-up this week and you can take the GTI” Zach said. While we talked cars Mr. J drove up the long drive, his wife had called him to come join us (and drive her home) and eventually we all made our way back to the patio and grazed on greasy chicken. Maggie was the center of attention as she entertained us all. I realized that a lot of our quiet nights had turned into impromptu parties since we moved out to the country.

It was still early when we said goodnight to everyone but I was done for the night. Zach loaded my case of pickled goods into the back of the Hall’s pick-up, then poured me into passenger seat and drove me back home. I talked nonstop for the entire ride home (well, Zach says I did), and Zach kept looking over at me with a grin on his face. “You’re tanked, dude” he laughed as we pulled into our long, dusty drive and parked the pick-up next to Riley’s little red status symbol. I jumped out of the pick-up and almost fell flat on my drunk little face when Zach ran around to the passenger’s side to catch me. With one arm around my waist, Zach helped me stumble up the old stone walk to the porch, then up the steps and into the mouth of our painted lady.

Riley and Petunia were sitting on the couch Facetiming with Eli. “Well, hello there Riles” I said with a drunken smile and squinted eyes that were barely open. I think I gave her a half-assed salute too.

She laughed and pointed the camera towards me so my brother could see me in my drunken state. “Oh, look at my baby brother, making me proud. I haven’t seen you that drunk since high school” Eli laughed through the phone.

“C’mon on little drunk boy, let’s get you to bed” Zach said as he guided me up the old staircase, down, the long hall, and into the master bedroom where I plopped face down on the mattress and passed out fully-clothed.

I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of the riding lawnmower outside my window. I was splayed across the bed fully dressed in the clothes I wore to BroMax the day before. My mouth felt like it was filled with cotton and I had a headache bigger than Riley’s credit card debt. Damn moonshine! I got out of bed and just stood there for a moment… shakily at first as I got my sea legs. I looked out the window to see Zach on the riding mower with his earbuds in, dancing on the seat of his new toy, it was so damn cute. I mustered a smile then made my way into the bathroom to brush my teeth and splash some water on my face, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror; I looked like hell. I made my way down to the kitchen to forage for coffee, along the way I passed Riley who was sitting on the couch with Petunia.

“Look who’s finally awake” She chirped.

“What time is it” I asked, my eyes still mostly closed.

“Almost ten, you were passed out” she said with a smirk, then laughed, “you were basted last night. I’ve never seen you that drunk.”

I sighed as I moved towards the kitchen, “coffee” was all I could say. Petunia jumped off the couch and followed me, I crouched down and she greeted me with kisses. I let her lick my face, then just hugged her for a bit before standing to pour myself a cup. I was just leaning against the hard countertop drinking my coffee and trying to wake up when Zach took a break from working in the yard and burst in the backdoor.

“She’s alive!” He yelled aggravating my headache even more. He stopped to give me a peck on the cheek on his way to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. “How you feelin’ drunk boy?”

“Like shit” I responded before taking another sip of coffee.

“You were so out of it that I couldn’t move you” He said with a smirk. “I slept in the guest room.”

I rolled my eyes in embarrassment and asked, “How’s it going out there? I gotta get my ass up and be useful.”

“I’m done mowing, now I’m gonna trim up around the house and then the barn and patio. I found an apple tree just a few feet off the driveway and into the woods, I’m gonna try to clear it out too before I call it a day.” Zach replied, “I got this. Why don’t you just sleep it off?”

“Nah, I gotta get up” I said, “Maybe some hard labor will sweat the moonshine out of my system.” With that I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and went out to the yard to help Zach tackle our own little personal hell. The sun was hot and whipped my hungover ass. We whacked all the weeds around the house, barn, patio, and trees that were in the grassy area. It took us a couple hours, but the place looked better than I had ever seen it. We were getting ready to tackle clearing the debris around the apple tree when Riley came out of the house all dressed up.

“I’m meeting some friends for lunch on the waterfront” she said. “I made lunch for you two, it’s on the counter.”

“Wow, thank you” I said in surprise. That was a very nice gesture and very un-Riley of her.

“Thanks, Riles” Zach added, “That was nice.”

“It’s your favorite, Zach. Grilled cheese and chicken soup.” She said as she walked towards the little red Mercedes and drove away. Zach smiled. That was total comfort food for him. I used to make it for him when he had a shitty day at school.

“Let’s eat” Zach said with a smile as we headed to the kitchen. The room had a cloud of smoke lingering over it, Zach turned on the vent above the stove and I opened the window to get rid of it. The smoke cleared quickly and uncovered the kitchen from hell. There was a scorched pan sitting in the sink, with a spatula and ladle thrown inside of it, and a mess on the counter. Next to the sink were two black sandwiches on plates each with a stack of potato chips, and on the stove was what looked to be a pan of hot water. There was an empty can on the counter with the other mess… “she poured some chicken broth into a pan and added more water to it.” Zach was disappointed, he was ready for grilled cheese and chicken soup, but this was inedible.

“Well, she tried” I laughed. “I’ll make lunch and then we can tackle the rest of the yard work” I said feeling kind of chipper now.

“Thank god your brother can cook or those two would starve” Zach said as he cleaned up the mess, and I made lunch. A few minutes later we sat down and ate, then I remembered… “Oh shit! I forgot to tell you!!!! Gina’s pregnant again!” Zach was excited, and texted her and Dylan a congratulatory text immediately. Then I told him about BA pushing Max and Brody, and US to give her grandbabies.

“US? Our kids won’t be her grandbabies” Zach said with a puzzled look.

“Wanna bet?” I asked. “BA said we’re all like her kids, including the guys from The Village, so therefore she lays claim to any all offspring, natural, adopted, foster, test-tube or otherwise… and can spoil them in any way she sees fit. Her words.” Zach laughed out loud, he loved BA. Then I told him about our discussion about becoming foster parents… he sparked to the idea and we agreed to seriously investigate it. After we ate lunch (the one I made) I felt better and we went back to work. Zach was right, there was an apple tree hiding just off the driveway. We cleared the brush and rubble away and it was beautiful, the apples were close to ripe and several had already fallen underneath. We made a pile of them and left them by the tree until we figured out what to do with them. The entire yard looked beautiful! Everything looked so trimmed and cared for… it was a home.

We went behind the barn and tried to figure out where old lady Jones had her garden. Everything had been neglected for several years and was overgrown with weeds and grass. We mapped out the garden and figured out where we could put the beehives. Zach wanted to till the soil in the garden before winter, so we decided to go over to BroMax and pick-up their tiller before we called it a day. That way we’d be ready to attack it the next weekend. We got in the Hall’s pick-up and headed over.

Max’s Perspective

It was Sunday afternoon and unusually quiet on the farm. That’s one thing about BroMax, there was almost always some activity going on… someone working overtime at the candle barn, construction, yardwork, beekeeping… something. When I first moved there it was so quiet and so far away from everyone. But now with Brody’s office in the loft, the candle factory in the barn, Seth, Zach, Terrance, and Harris all living just down the road, it seemed to be the hub of activity… and I fucking loved it.

I was out back in my new greenhouse; I was so freaking excited to finally have it built but there was still so much work to do. Me and Brody researched the hell out of it and got a lot of help and input from Craig. We looked at glass or polycarbonate exterior, brick floors, gravel floors, cement floors, different irrigations systems, etc. It took me forever to make up my mind but I finally settled on glass with a cement floor. It was more expensive to build and took more to maintain, but it was solid as a rock and it looked so freaking cool; I was happy with our choices. As BroMax Candles grew, so did the demand for our signature line, which offered scents made from homegrown herbs and I needed to grow year round to keep up with the demand, thus the greenhouse. We had contracts for some private labels that used manufactured scents, and I had created a line of our own that did the same so we could offer seasonal and holiday scents, but the homegrown was our bread and butter.

Craig was coming up for a week to help me set everything up and plant, and I wanted to be organized before he came. I installed the irrigation system myself and was starting to set up all the planting benches. Craig was working on a schematic of what to plant where, we’d be ready to start when he got here. This was all new to me but I was researching the hell out of all of it and Craig was teaching me so much; the guy was smart. The greenhouse was big and empty, I was in there blasting my music and assembling the benches when Brody came in from working in the yard. “It’s looking good in here, Maxwell” my husband said as he knelt beside me on the new cement floor.

“Yeah, I’m excited to get it all done” I said.

“When does Craig get here?” Brody asked.

“He flies in Wednesday afternoon and will be here for a full week. We should be able to get a shitload done while he’s here.” I answered excitedly while I kept working on assembly. Brody joined in and helped, he was hot and sweaty from yardwork, his auburn curls sticking out of the same baseball cap that he was wearing on his head the day we met… damn he was cute! We got the base of the bench done then finished the top and lifted it on the base. Brody was standing up holding it in place while I was on my knees underneath with the power screwdriver tightening everything up. I got the last screw in and started to come out from under the bench ass first. I backed right into Brody’s crotch and he didn’t pass up the opportunity to grind himself up against me.

“You got the best damn muscle-ass, Maxwell” Brody said with a chuckle. I pushed my ass back at him in a teasing response and the little bastard pantsed me, pulling my shorts done in one fell swoop. I was hunched underneath the planting bench with my bare ass sticking up in the middle of the greenhouse. “Gotdammit” Brody muttered as he rubbed my white ass with his soft hand and let his middle finger linger in my ginger-fuzzed crack. I felt him take his hand away as he leaned in, I could feel his hot breath on my gully as he inhaled and let out another breathy “gotdamn, Maxwell.” Suddenly I felt his hands part my alabaster cheeks and his warm tongue lick my camphoraceous void.

An indistinguishable yawp found its way from deep inside my gullet, up my esophagus, and through my lips. I could feel Brody’s smile of satisfaction against my ass as his hands pulled my fleshy dunes even further apart and he pushed his cute little face in deeper. His saliva irrigated my yearning trench and a “fuck, Brody” escaped my lips in a guttural whisper that echoed through the empty glass structure. His tongue pierced through my ass ring as he routed my insides with his soft moist oral appendage. His licks turned to thrusts as he tongue-fucked me with more gusto than a keg of Schlitz Beer. The air in the greenhouse was hot but my cheek was cold as my face lay against the cement floor and I just enjoyed the sensation Brody was giving my exposed bottom. His slurps and moans were low and barely audible, but their vibrations added to the euphoria. “Fuck me Brody” I begged involuntarily in a voice I didn’t recognize.

A slap crackled through the glass structure as Brody snickered under his breath. He knew his tongue was just the appetizer and I’d be unfulfilled without the main course. “Get me harder” He growled. I slithered out from under the newly assembled planting bench and sat my bare ass on the cold cement floor. My mouth was perfectly situated at his full, svelte ball sac, I gave it a lick before grabbing it with my hands and examining it more closely. It was so smooth to the touch and looked silky from a distance, but close up I could see every pore and goose bump of his tempting skin pouch. I gave his smooth sac a warm bath, taking the tender skin in my mouth and wrapping my tongue around it. My hand snaked up and grabbed his shaft, the skin was soft but the flesh was hard and wanting. After spending a little more time on his balls, I sat up straight and Brody crouch down just a little so his cock was lined up perfectly with my soft, ready lips. Brody was small in stature and such a quiet guy, but when it came to sex, he was large and in charge. Brody put his hands on my head and massaged it through my red thatch, holding it firm as he pushed his way in. My mouth willingly opened to receive his engorged manhood, FUCK! Every vein and ridge titillated my senses as it moved slowly across my tongue towards my throat. His spongy crown met the back of my throat and a groan escaped his lips and he tightened his grip on my head… a moan of my own shot through my being and vibrated on the steeled phallus basking in the serenity of my oral cavity.

Brody slowly started to face-fuck me, his slow and steady strokes soon morphed into harder, welcomed thrusts, then nothing. He stopped, pulled out, put his hands under my arms and lifted me to my feet. We stood there face-to-face, our shorts to our knees, and our lips just inches apart. We met in a passionate kiss and Brody grasped my hardening cock, squeezing it. I wordlessly turned around, thrust my still wet asshole against his hard, slick cock and bent over the planting bench beckoning him to enter. He didn’t need an engraved invite; he pushed forward breaching my hole with a pop. God, he felt so damn good in me as he inched forward. Further and further his demon of love traversed my canal until it bottomed out, I pushed back wanting, needing more of him. I moved forward and back impaling myself on Brody as he moaned quietly and begged for more “That’s it, Maxwell. Right there, hail yeah, squeeze me.” I contracted my ass muscles gripping him has hard as I could, damn I felt so full. He picked up his pace and started to fuck me, he knew what I needed, and I knew what he wanted. He reached around and gently caressed my throbbing virality matching his thrusts stroke for stroke. I pushed back as he pushed forward, moving as one entity… BroMax. Several more strokes and Brody declared his looming climax “Dayum, Maxwell. I’m cummin.”

“Yeah, Baby. I’m right with you, shoot in me” I whimpered through my sobs of ecstasy. He picked up his pace thrusting into me faster and stroking me with more and more ardor until we exploded synchronously in a symphony of mutually indulgent gratification. Brody planting his seed in my tight, yearning hole and me shooting mine onto the brand new planting bench.

My ears were ringing with passion as Brody’s strokes slowed down and our bodies relaxed. Suddenly the ringing turned into a crunching sound.

“Oh shit! Somebody’s comin’ up the drive” Brody grunted in my ear as he pulled out of me and reached for the pants bunched up at his ankles.  I did the same then reached for a nearby towel and tried to wipe my cum off the newly assembled bench. I was still wiping off the remnants when I heard Seth’s voice yell from the driveway “Hello?! Where are you guys?!”

“In the greenhouse!” I yelled back still fixing my clothes and out of breath. Zach and Seth entered and Brody and I looked guilty as hell, two little kids caught with our hands in the cookie jar.

“Wow! This is awesome” Zach said as he looked around. The greenhouse had been under construction for a couple of weeks and I wouldn’t let anyone near it until it was done, so this was the first time they were seeing it. “It’s freaking huge!” he exclaimed as they looked around and came closer to us.

Seth sniffed then asked, “Are you cleaning with bleach in here?”

Brody and I exchanged glances. Oh shit! They could smell our cum. “Um. Yeah, just trying to get rid of all the construction dust” I lied.

Zach looked down at the bench, then gave us each a quick look-over before he broke out in uproarious laughter, “did we just walk in on you guys doin’ it?” We were busted.

I turned bright red, but shy little Brody didn’t miss a beat and just said “Yup. Y’all could’ve given us a couple of minutes to enjoy the afterglow” then he walked out of the greenhouse and said with a proud smile, “I got some more tractorin’ to do” and he whistled as he walked to his riding mower, started it up, and rode away. Zoey came out of the pasture and followed behind him as he finished mowing the yard.

I looked at Seth and said, “You’re looking a little better than you were last night. Dude, you were sloshed.”

“Ugh, I know. I sweated the moonshine out with yardwork” Seth replied.

“I’ve learned to pace myself. BA likes breaking in newbies. She’ll let you drink until you pass out.” I said with a laugh making the guys smile.

“Hey, can we borrow your tiller? I wanna start clearing the garden” Zach said.

“We also found an apple tree hidden off the drive, do you have a couple of bushels we can borrow?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, we got all that shit! It’s in the garage” I answered and then the three of us took off to the garage to find it. I loved that they were getting into country life as much as us. We went to the garage and found the tiller in the very front of the old structure, in front of the car. I backed the red hot Camaro out and we rolled the tiller out of the garage and lifted into the back of the Hall’s shiny pick-up truck. Then I rummaged around and found them a couple of bushels for collecting apples. “Pick them all up. Mrs. J’s neighbor boards horses and will take whatever you got” I said.

After Brody finished mowing, the guys stuck around and we threw some burgers on the grill. With our bellies full, we all sat in the living room and watched Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. We must’ve watched that damn movie a thousand times when we all lived in the duplex and it felt so comforting to sit there with my husband and best friends watching it again.

I really loved the life Brody and I had built for ourselves. Having all our friends around was the cherry on top.

 

To be continued…

 

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R.I.P. Pee Wee Herman. You will be missed.