Puppy Love

Thanks to oldnakeddad for his editing expertise helping to make this story a better read.

A story of a love connection, an old nemesis from high school and the troubles associated with a hatred that was directed for the wrong reasons and the final and ultimate revenge of the wrong wronged person.

I hope you enjoy. Please do not forget to vote and feel free to make any comments, whether they are constructive or not, I read all the comments. Thank you.

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Chapter 1 - Background

What exactly is Puppy Love? Lock your spouse and your dog in the trunk of the car for an hour. When you open the trunk, see which one is glad to see you! If you can define it better than that, go for it!

I had been struck with that feeling of puppy love since I was twenty-four years old. I had gone to a Halloween party with a friend. Shoot I had nothing to lose since I had just gotten out of the military just a few months prior. I didn't have a girlfriend since I had left at the area at the age of twenty. I had been in a community college and just ran out of money for the monetary needs involved with college life living away from home. Since I could barely afford college I didn't have any one that I could actually call a girlfriend. Yes I had study friends and some of them I had a few encounters of the romantic nature. No strike that, it was of the lustful nature. But seriously, how can you empress some chick with pizza, beer and a video tape (age defining moment) that was borrowed from your roomy? I knew they were in the mood because they were there for the same reasons I was. As I said we were looking for absolutely nothing permanent, just temporary relief from the stress of college.

My name is Eddy McDonald, I stand an impressive five feet, seven inches tall and weighed about one hundred sixty-five pounds. Since I had spent four years in the military my blond hair had not grown out very much. I did have it a little longer than the typical military haircut. I have a typical mustache and would only shave every other day. I have been told I have piercing blue eyes. I discovered early that working out about thirty minutes in the morning before duty or thirty minutes after duty that I had developed pretty good muscles and stamina. While I was not chiseled I was in nice shape and, of course, I did use that to my advantage.

My life in the military had placed me aboard a U.S. Navy warship. Every once in a while, things would get serious with our compliment of Navy Seals on board but that did not happen very often. The equipment the Seals needed or used had failed only one time. Some of the other machinist mates on board were not as experienced as I was with some of the Seals' equipment so I started, single handedly, going over their equipment from that point forward to make sure it was in working order and would perform as needed or required. This had helped me to get to know the Seal team and we soon became friends. At times we would discuss home life and other times we discussed some of the things that occurred during their missions. This actually helped me get to know the Seal team and we soon became friends. At times we would discuss home life and other times we discussed some of the things that occurred during their missions. This actually helped me to better understand the expectations of their equipment.

After the Vietnam War had been declared over in late 1972, there was not any real threat that had been deemed life threatening. In reality, the war in Vietnam was not really over until 1975 when an official government document was signed by all parties involved. And yes, there were some scary times but they were few and far between. We primarily acted as a deterrent to any further military action from the enemy or perceived enemy. On our return trips we merely carried a lot of equipment and tired soldiers, Marines and airmen, back to the states. All sort of boring stuff if you really think about it, but there were those times when everyone, mainly the Seals, returned from their short missions...it was good to know they had someone outside of their small contingent to talk with. It took a lot of trust for the Seal team members to finally let their hair down to anyone outside of their group. Even though I was not a Navy Seal, I did get to work out with a few of them. They helped me learn stuff and I helped them to stay alive while on missions. I just seemed to be in the right place at the right time. It had its times, but even those were not very common so I was looking forward to my last cruise and getting on with my civilian life. Though I had not trained in a vocation I could transition back into civilian life I had saved some money and, combined with the promised benefits of schooling I was looking forward to starting some college classes in the spring of the following year.

An old high school buddy and I kept in contact so we were again best buds. I accompanied him to a Friday night Halloween party with no real theme to it, just come dressed as casual or costumed if you wanted to. I wore my dress whites so I figured I was dressed to impress any of the hotties that may be there but I also knew that I would be comfortable so I didn't really worry about much. Seeing all those stripes on the sleeves of the jersey top and a few ribbons on the chest helped to get me noticed.

Some clown decided to come up to me and try to pick a fight because he recognized the uniform and determined it was the real deal. Most sailors had a reputation for drinking, fighting and romanticizing in all the ports of the world. He also recognized me as his high school nemesis but, of course me being away for a little over six years, I did not recognize him. At some point in our senior year in high school, I had apparently taken or stolen, however you wish to look at it, his sweetheart. At the time I felt she was just another conquest so what the heck, it hadn't bothered me at the time and I still felt no remorse for what had happened. Besides the girl and I had only dated about three months, and before you ask, yes we were intimate, very intimate. While the lust filled dates with her was exciting in a very inexperienced way, it did leave me feeling somewhat satisfied but ready to move on after graduation. He apparently remembered it all as if it was yesterday. He also was not a happy landlubber, had set his eyes on revenge, and tonight, he thought he would try to extract. In a stand up fight, there are really no fair fights...I could go toe to toe with the best of them. I had learned quite allot about hand to hand combat and what would be necessary to take out the enemy if I was ever to encounter such a threat.

I had lost track of my buddy because he had already started mingling so there was no way he would be able to give me a heads up. The next thing I knew, I had been cold cocked to the back of my head, by an empty beer bottle. Well as soon as I was able to return to my feet, he had already started back at me when, out of the blue, all I saw as a smallish woman lay him out with a spinning roundhouse to the left side of his head...lights out for him. I was at a loss for words, as were many of the others who were nearby. I felt sort of embarrassed, not only for getting nearly KO'ed by that guy, but the fact that a petit, young woman just came to my rescue. I was pretty much dumbstruck but also I was impressed. This young lady had not only come to my rescue but had stolen my heart. I grew up believing, as my mother has said, that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. All it took for me was to watch that roundhouse she delivered.

She was twenty-four years old, five feet, four inches tall, had shoulder length red hair, blue eyes that could melt butter, lips that begged to be kissed, and a very shapely for her frame, endowed with just barely above average breasts. Her waist was not small but also not big so it naturally melted into her heart shaped butt which was perfect for her and freckles adorned her face over both cheeks and across her button nose. She was dressed as Wonder Woman's sidekick so her shapely figure was not obscured by an over abundance of clothing exposing her well defined legs, as a dancer's would be. So, in short, she was merely a beautiful goddess standing there with her hands on her hips looking downward towards the guy she had just laid out in a single blow with her right foot.

Damn, I was impressed, smitten and just fixing to go GAGA over her when she turned, held out her hand and introduced herself to me. I was, for the first time in my life, at a loss for words and I was still sort of slow in the up take since the beer bottle had exploded on the back of my head causing a bump to form and I was confused as to why she just jumped in when she did. I had to get to know this woman.

While I was no slouch in the physical department, I simply was not expecting to be hammered like I was. When you are onboard ship, not on duty, and since there were no women allowed on board Navy ships at this time, the only thing you could or would do is eat, sleep, go on duty and then work out. So my muscles, endurance and stamina were pretty good. It was a plus that I still went to a local gym to work out. Something about forming a habit doing something you enjoy.

When I finally regained some sense of normality, I was finally able to figure out, though I did have a large bump on the back of my head, I was OK. I introduced myself to her and found that her voice sounded as if she was an angel from heaven. She told me her name is Sherry. Not only was she my but she was an angel from the angelic choir, too! As I said, define puppy love and there you have it, I was smitten with puppy love. This was the first day of the rest of my life and I was figuring out a way to include her in it.

We started dating by going to a small café, near the college campus I had intended to enroll in, and it just sort of blossomed from there. I found out she was a third year nursing student, widowed, no children and still living at home. Her favorite hobby was dancing and, of course karate which explained a lot. She had used her widow's benefit she received from her Marine husband to make a life for herself. He had been injured in country and died, as a result of his wounds, a short time later. She had, at least at that time, not dated and was devoting her time and energies to studying so she could graduate and get a job as a top notch nurse in the larger nearby town in need of nursing talents. With her degree she probably could qualify to become a physician's assistant, which was not really a title back then but it sounded good any way. I still hadn't figured out what I really wanted to do, yet but was leaning towards a mechanical engineering degree since I knew a lot about machinery and the likes. After all being a machinist's mate in the Navy gave me a lot of education and challenging situations on board ship, but since meeting her, I thought I wanted to become a doctor. With nurses that looked like her, well, it sure makes it enticing, for sure.

We continued seeing each other, almost daily, after her classes and when the spring semester started, I had enrolled in mechanical engineering to start getting the basics out of the way. She still had a full year to go for her education and it just seemed natural for us to be in the study hall, the library, lunch hall or the student center together. Since I did have a history of mechanical things, I was able to test out and found out I really only needed about two years of formal education to receive my first degree in mechanical engineering. Of course, since I really didn't know anyone there, I just hung with her and she showed me around. She lived with her parents and I had an off campus apartment about three miles from campus. It would be nothing for us to wind up at my apartment once or twice a week.

Now get your minds out of the gutter, NOTHING happened between us. Even though we had known each other now for about three months, we were still getting to know each other but I was starting to feel a little frustrated. This is the longest time I had spent with a person of the gentlier persuasion without getting frisky and following through with that feeling. Even while on board, there was rosy palm and her five friends to relieve any stiff situations which generally arose. I had met Sherry's parents, her sister and her sister's husband and their two children. They liked me and I felt a mutual liking for them. I was really enjoying the time we were spending together. Even though we still had not been intimate, I knew it was now just a matter of time. When I mentioned her parents seemed to still be in love with each other, I also mentioned that I thought I was becoming a little more infatuated with her and I would like to take our relationship to the next level. I also told her I truly believed that I would like for her and I to become exclusive to each other. I thought I had said the wrong thing because she was very silent for about the last ten minutes of our drive back to my apartment. When we finally arrived, I noticed she had tears coming out of her eyes, down her face and dripping off her cheeks. I thought I really messed up a blossoming relationship. About that time, I asked her if she was alright and she told me how much she had fallen in love with me too but was just afraid to say anything about it to me. I knew she still carried love in her heart for her deceased husband and she confirmed there was no way she was going to lose me the way she lost her last husband. WOW!! I could not believe how much things changed after that. I also understood, while her Marine husband was no longer alive, she would always have a place in her heart for him and the funny thing is, I did not feel jealous about him. She had told me how they met, courted, fell in love and eventually married. Occasionally, I would see her drifting off to somewhere in her mind and ask her about it and when I could see it happening in the future, I would hold her hand and tell her it was all OK. I knew I would not, or probably even could not, replace him in her heart. I knew she did love me for being considerate of her feelings and I also knew, over time, his memory would fade into the background. Some things are simply hard to fathom unless you know the pain others feel.

Things seemed to be going smoothly until about the fourth month of college when I was blindsided by a couple of guys and was not in a position to react quickly enough. There was this guy from the Halloween party and one of his buddies delivering some of their best knockout punches to my face and upper torso. It took me quite a few seconds to finally stand up and, even though I was sluggish, I readied for them to bring it on. About the time I was going to start my delivery of one of my best punches from all the street fighting I had been involved in during my tenure in the Navy, there was a small crowd forming. I saw, not one, not two but about ten females tackle the both of them and take them both out of the equation as quickly as it had started. My girlfriend was arriving about that time, smiling from ear to ear. I had no idea what was going on! As it turned out, they were lady friends from her karate classes. She had been taking to them and she had described them to me and pointed me out to them at some point in time. Even though I had never met them personally, I already liked her group of friends. These ladies were a pretty tight knit group who didn't put up with crap from anyone, at any time, for any reason.

I had met one or two of them but didn't recognize them at the time. Now I was being rescued by a whole group of women and felt sort of embarrassed about it. Of course, dumb ass and his pal were getting up swearing at me and threatening they would both get even with me soon. At least they left.

Things went good and I had become some the sort of hero that the other guys wanted me to introduce them to the ladies of the group. Even though it was an embarrassing situation, those who had seen the altercation when it started and ended were impressed I could have that many really nice looking women looking out for me. In all actuality, there was not an ugly one in the bunch. Now there was a couple already in some sort of a relationship we were becoming a group of friends with a tight knit bond. Sherry was wrapping up her last few months of her degree and our time together had gotten limited. We still found time for each other and we still had not had an intimate encounter. Yes we had romantic dinners, dates and excursions but we had not had sex. Our love had been based on getting to know each other and it seemed we truly loved that over the possibility of having sex ruin anything. By now we had been dating for about nine months.

We had become engaged the day of her graduation. We were at her parent's house celebrating with her entire family, living within a hundred miles, there. There was B-B-Q, drinks, music, dancing and it was, in general, a really good time. My parents were there, my buddy from high school and a few friends from college were also there. At some point, around dusk, Sherry's father fired off a small black powder canon he was proud of and that, of course, got everyone's attention, to say the least. He called his daughter up to the area on the porch, went on to address the crowd and to congratulate his daughter for a job well done. Everyone was cheering and clapping and all the commotion was lost in the moment of celebration when her mom whispered to her dad that I needed to say something, too. It was at then I pulled out a large diamond ring, got on one knee in front of everyone and proposed to her. The crowd erupted with shouts and tears of joy. You could barely hear her as she agreed to be my wife. Although you could not miss the fact that when she finally heard me ask her to be my wife and mother of any future children we would eventually have, she knocked me over like a bowling ball hitting the head pin and making a strike! I had another eighteen months before my degree so I told her when I graduated we would tie the knot shortly afterwards. Her father would have nothing to do with us waiting and sort of pushed us to move the date closer. Well you cannot really force the willing so within six months we became united in wedded bliss. For the record, we finally had joyous, wonderful, heartwarming, animalistic, loud, sensuous, overboard, exploring and fun sex with each other. We explored every inch of each other's body, doing things I did not even know was humanly possible...things she didn't know existed either. We honeymooned for the rest of the month and started to settle down a little. We still enjoyed each other twice a day and all day on Saturdays and Sundays, at least when we were alone. If you came by the house unannounced, you might have to wait five or ten minutes before you could be let in, but it was understandable.

Her parents were not wealthy but very comfortable in their existence. Her dad owned a consulting company that was doing very well. He had no sons and his only son-in-law was a successful lawyer. He had no one he would consider leaving his business to so I think he sort of schemed to bring me into the business. Since my major was in mechanical engineering and my minor was in business, it seemed natural to him. He didn't discuss this with me or Sherry so we had no idea, but he had discussed it with Sherry's mom. I knew he had about twelve more years before he was going to retire. Sherry and I had made plans for the both of us to move about a hundred miles away when I graduated because the job offers were starting to come in about four months before I graduated. Sherry was already established at a hospital about twenty-five miles from us in the same direction of the town we were planning to move to. We figured if we lived somewhere in the middle of her job and my job, we could still save money and have a nice time doing what we loved, which was spending time together. Life was good.