“Turn haggard and gray.”
“Oh, please!” I rolled my eyes for effect. “You’re a beautiful woman, still in your prime.”
“Middle-aged prime.”
“I’d do you,” I said before I realized it. All of a sudden my cheeks flushed and I wanted to crawl into a hole.
“Oh, Paul!” she laughed. “You should see your face.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “Make fun of me for a moment of weakness.”
“Thank you, honey,” she said, although her eyes still crinkled with laughter. “That’s very kind of you. But we have rules about that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Besides, you’re in a serious relationship now.”
“I know, but…”
“But…? It isn’t that serious?”
“Oh, it’s serious all right. And I think Christy will eventually be a swinger, but…”
She waited while I gathered my thoughts.
“I guess I’m a little frustrated. We still haven’t gone all the way.”
Her eyebrows flew up. “But… you live together. She moved in with you, right? So you sleep together every night.”
“She did and we do. But we still haven’t had sex.”
“Why not?”
“Long story. The short version is…” I took a deep breath and sighed. “She doesn’t have a lot of experience. Although… that isn’t true. She has experience, but not with sex. Well, not with intercourse. In other ways she’s pretty open-minded and even more open to… um… ‘experimentation.’”
Mom’s eyebrows rose again. “Which means…?”
“She’s pretty wild. In bed. Not swing-from-the-rafters wild, but a lot wilder than I originally gave her credit for. She and I… like a lot of the same things.”
“I think I understand.” She knew me a lot better than most mothers knew their sons. Not only from Susan—her best friend and my first lover—but also from personal experience.
“Right,” I agreed. “She really enjoys giving head.”
“And you enjoy receiving it.”
“Duh. Who doesn’t? But it’s more than that.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. She understands some of my other… um… kinks.”
“We aren’t talking about swinging, are we?”
“No. A bit more… taboo.”
She knew the code word too.
I almost chuckled that neither of us would say “incest” aloud, but we both knew what we were talking about.
“And she’s okay with it?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said in disbelief. “It blew me away.” I let my words hang in the air. “This friend, Brooke—”
“The one she’s seeing in San Diego? Whose boyfriend broke up with her?”
“Right, her. She opened Christy’s eyes quite a bit, back in high school. They used to read letters in Penthouse Variations and talk about their own fantasies. Christy never admitted to hers, but Brooke did.”
“And they’re more than just friends?”
“Exactly. So I couldn’t really say no when Brooke asked her to come spend time with her.” I grimaced. “No matter how much I wanted to.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Christy finally decided she was ready to go all the way. Then Brooke called and messed things up. I shouldn’t say ‘messed up,’ but you know what I mean. I’ve been waiting patiently for months. Sure, we do other things, but not sex. Real sex, I mean, penis in vagina.” I took a deep breath and tried to relax. “Anyway, that’s why I’m here for a couple of days. And while Christy is ‘comforting’ her friend, I was hoping for a little attention myself.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “I thought I’d give Leah a call, but I just realized I’m probably out of luck.”
“You are. She’s with Erin at the beach. But… Christy would be okay with that?”
“Believe it or not, yeah. We talked about it before we left. She sort of asked permission to fool around with Brooke.”
“And you gave it to her, of course.”
“More like I told her she didn’t need my permission. But still… I asked about Leah and me.”
“So Christy knows about your past? With Leah?”
“Knows and gets hot talking about it. She has a thing for exotic brunettes.”
Mom chuckled. “She really is more open-minded than I gave her credit for.”
“Mmm hmm. And it’s only a matter of time before she becomes a swinger too. She just has to get used to the idea of doing it herself.”
“In the meantime she doesn’t have a problem with you fooling around with someone else?”
“We’ll see. This is the first time it’s ever come up. But yeah, we talked about it, which was why I was looking forward to seeing Leah.”
“And then we messed things up when we paid for Erin’s trip.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I said with an edge of sarcasm.
She laughed, unconcerned. “You’ll just have to find someone else to fool around with.”
“Yeah, Rosy Palm,” I muttered.
“Oh, you poor thing.”
I looked at my watch and decided to take my pity party to bed. “It’s late,” I said as I stood, “and we have a full day tomorrow.”
Her expression fell at my sudden departure, although she recovered quickly. “You’re right,” she said. “We should probably go to bed.”
I bent to kiss her cheek. “G’night, Mom. See you in the morning.”
“See you in the morning,” she echoed. Then she grinned. “Don’t let Rosy wear you out.”
Chapter 4
I woke up early the next morning and dressed in running clothes. I quietly let myself out the back door and began stretching on the patio. The morning was cold and damp, so I was glad I’d brought a windbreaker and would soon be jogging.
I started an easy pace, and the miles fell behind me as I toured my old neighborhood. I passed two of the houses that Trip and I had renovated the summer before. They both looked good, like their new owners were taking care of them, although the rancher needed some yard work. We’d sold it for an exorbitant price to a Yuppie couple who’d won a bidding war. They weren’t the gardening types.
Mom was awake and making coffee when I returned to the house. Her light pink robe showed off her cleavage. I pretended not to notice but did a double-take when I realized how short it was too. She didn’t normally wear clothes when she got up in the morning, but it was just cool enough that she’d put on the robe. Still, she’d chosen something that showed off her assets.
She caught me looking and arched an eyebrow, so I changed the subject.
“When did you start drinking coffee?”
“A couple of years ago. I still can’t drink it black, but I like the caffeine in the morning.” She stirred in cream and sugar and then gestured at a second mug. “Want some?”
“No, but thanks. What do we have for breakfast?”
“What’re you in the mood for? Bacon and eggs?”
I chuckled at the word “bacon”—it was Christy’s safe word—but didn’t explain. “Maybe something healthier,” I said instead. “Fruit? Cereal?”
“We have some grapefruit.”
“Ugh. Anything else. A cantaloupe? A couple of oranges? I know you don’t have apples.”
She gave me an unapologetic eye-roll.
“Sorry. I’m sort of turning into her. Christy, I mean—”
“I knew who you meant.”
“Well, she’s turning into me in many ways, so it balances out.”
“If you say so. She still won’t have sex with you.”
“Don’t remind me,” I grumbled.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I really like her. I only want you to be happy.”
“I am, Mom. I really am. I’m just frustrated at the moment. Even more ’cause I was hoping to spend some time with Leah.” Or Erin, I thought, but kept it to myself. “Let’s talk about something else.”