Of Greenery and Sweaty Richie

The only information Toni had be able to weasel out of Richie was that Jim would be back in a couple of weeks, some business to take care of he’d said. That wasn’t good enough, what man would leave his wife on their honeymoon for goodness sake. Richie was working out and she watched him from the terrace for awhile and wandered out in her garden.

It was hard to believe Christmas was upon them with the weather in summer mode. Visions of a snowy Dickinson scene seemed far, far away. Taking her clippers she wandered out to the edge of the woods to see what kind of greenery she might use to decorate their house. Later she had a pile of clippings on the terrace.

"Why didn’t you put that in the compost pile?" asked Richie coming out of his weight room with a towel around his neck.

"It’s not compost stuff, I’m finally going to do something about decorating for Christmas."

"With this mess?"

"What mess, you just wait I plan to amaze you with my efforts. This ‘mess’ as you call it is going to become a wreath and this lot will be a garland to go around the front door. I’m thinking about calling Ivy and see if she will go into Coffs with me to find some more decorations."

"Yeah, probably a good idea to call her, I imagine she’s feeling a little lonely right now."

Toni gave him a sideways look, "I imagine she is."

"Hey come here, you know I can’t tell you Jim’s business." Richie pulled her into his arms.

"I think you two are in cahoots about something…"

"Cahoots? No babe its just business, wanna give me a ride to the boarding house?"

"Not until you shower." She said running her fingers through his damp hair

"I might need help." He said pressing his pelvis against her

"Ohhh I can see you need a lot of help Richie Roberts worked yourself up did you?"

"Umm hmm."

"Think you can make it to the shower?" she grinned

"Not if you keep doing that, damn Toni…"