She waited for me to park the car. Then she unbuckled her seatbelt, rose on her knees, and cupped my face. “Do you really care whose bed it is? As long as I’m in it?”
“No.”
“And do you really care about the guys in my past? As long as you’re the one in my present?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Then don’t worry about Simon.” She looked into my eyes and for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me. Then she grinned and said, “You should probably worry about Jody, though. He might try to put the moves on you. And I know how you are about the size of your penis—”
“Ha!”
“But for the record, I’m glad he isn’t interested in me.” She pretended to shudder. “Way too big. Oh my gosh, no. Just… no.” She scrunched her nose but then smiled. “Yours is perfect, thank you very much.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
“Mmm, I do.”
“Not till the wedding.”
“Unh, no fair!” she squawked. “We already did it! You can’t stop now. I have needs, you know.”
I grinned and kissed her. “Yes, you do. So let’s get a move on. I have plans for you tonight.”
“Nefarious plans?”
“Of course.”
“Mmm, those’re my favorite!”
Christy chattered happily for the first hour of the flight to Elkins, and I split my attention between her and the flight itself. But then she said something that disconnected my personal autopilot.
“Hold on,” I said as I checked the real autopilot, the one flying the plane,
“say again.”
“What?” Christy said.
“Something about Marianne and your mom.”
“Oh, right. I said I think they’re working together. And now I’m sure you were right—my mom knew what we were up to over spring break. She must’ve told Marianne, too, ’cause she wasn’t surprised when I told her we went all the way. She tried to act like it, but I could tell.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“She’s known all along that we were eventually going to do it, but I never told her when. I never told anyone. I mean, why would I? Well, except for you and Brooke, but you know what I mean.”
I nodded.
“Anyway, she wasn’t surprised. And now she’s sort of fishing for information. She’s being subtle, but it’s obvious when you think about it. She asked about my ‘old room’ and how I liked having a grown-up relationship
‘all the time.’ I tried to act innocent, but I don’t think she bought it. So now my mom knows we’re living together.”
“Is that a problem?” I asked.
“I… I don’t think so. I guess I’m just starting to figure out what’s going
on behind the scenes. I’ve always known that’s how my mom does things, although it’s kinda weird to think she’s doing it to you and me. But… now I’m wondering how much of what I tell Marianne goes straight to her.”
“Does it bother you?”
“Yes? No? Maybe? I don’t know. I mean, she’s a woman too, so I’m not worried about her telling my dad, but it’s weird to think that she knows specifics. Like, I asked Marianne if she knew how to deep throat. Does that mean my mom knows too? So it’s weird. And you know how I am when I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “I do.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“It sort of is.”
“I don’t mind sharing what we do in private with Brooke or Erin or even Wren sometimes, but I don’t want Marianne and my mom to know. Not about all of it. I don’t think they’d understand.”
“They understand that you’re happy, don’t they?”
“Of course.”
“Then I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Yeah, it is. Sorry.”
“Erin told me the same thing,” she said with a sigh. “I suppose I should listen.”
I shot her a sideways glance, but her expression was impossible to read in the dim glow from the instrument panel. “When did you talk to Erin?”
“A couple of days ago. You were in Joska’s lab, and I had some time before dance class.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Christy said with a grin in her voice. “But you can probably guess.”
“Me?”
“Of course. She’s really funny, though. She doesn’t know how much I know, so she was like you, just now. What’s the word—?”
“Cagey,” I said.
“Right, exactly! She was totally cagey. She sort of relaxed when we started talking about our favorite subject, though.”
“Which is?”
“Oh, please. Fellatio. I wanted to ask her about deep throat. That’s why I
called. It’s all I’ve been thinking about lately. Brooke even looked through the rest of her mom’s books to see if she could find anything for me. No luck, but she tried. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, Erin. She had a bunch of good tips, so I’m going to try them this weekend.
“She said to try different positions, like sixty-nine or on my side or even on my back. Speaking of which, one of my favorite movies has a scene like that. It isn’t deep throat, but it’s the first thing I thought of. The woman’s on this pool table, and she hangs her head over so the guy can… um… fuck her mouth. Then he comes all over her face.”
Christy sensed my reaction and grinned over at me. “Yeah, it’s pretty hot.
We can try it this weekend. I’m a bit worried about gagging, but I’m very determined.”
“Believe me, I know. And I’m thinking you might need a little practice now.”
“Ooh, this is one of your fantasies, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh.” I unzipped my pants and reached inside for my rapidly expanding manhood.
“We’ll have to be careful, though,” she said. “I don’t want you to crash.”
“Trust me, I don’t wanna crash either.” I scanned the instruments and airspace. All clear. “We should be fine, though. We have about thirty minutes before I need to start our descent into Elkins.”
“Can the autopilot land the plane?”
“No,” I laughed.
“So I need to stop talking and start sucking? Mmm, my pleasure.”
Damon and Alexa were waiting for us at the airport in Elkins. They were happy to see us, but they’d been sniping at each other before we arrived. I suppressed a grin and thought about how Erin and I had been at their age. I decided to distract them as we pulled out of the parking lot and turned toward Snowshoe.
I asked about their flying lessons, and they said they’d both soloed. I was a bit surprised, but then I did the math and realized we hadn’t seen them in six weeks. They’d also started flying twice a week after the ski resort had closed for the season.
“We have a new instructor, too,” Alexa said. She gave her brother a pointed look and said, “She’s awesome. Though Damon doesn’t like her
’cause she wouldn’t let him solo until a week after I did.”
“But I did it in a real plane,” Damon objected. “You only did it in a glider.”
“A solo’s a solo,” I said. “Congratulations, Alexa.” I shrugged philosophically and said to Damon, “Christy’s better’n me at lots of things.”
“Yeah, but she’s a girl,” he muttered.
“They both are. And that’s okay.”
“Maybe for you,” he snapped, which wasn’t like him. “Sorry,” he said immediately.
“Eh, it’s okay. I get it, you wanna be better than your sister. But just because you’re a guy doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be better at things.
That isn’t how the world works. I mean, I met a woman a couple of weeks ago who’s way better at math and science than I am, and I’m no slouch.
“She’s studying to be an engineer, but I was a complete jerk when she told me,” I added. “Even worse, she was used to it, ’cause most guys react like I did. But women can be pilots or engineers or astronauts or anything else they wanna be. And it’s up to guys like you and me to be cool when we find out. We can’t get upset when they’re better’n us, either.”