"Jesus! Now he thinks I’m teasing him!" Beth exclaimed.
"You are, anyway, Honey, whether you know it or not!" Louise giggled.
Things got busy for a bit; it was over an hour before Beth could relax and chat with Louise again. Dr. Rankin was nowhere in sight. "You’ve ruined it!" Beth sighed. "I had a man actually looking, and you ran him off!"
"He comes by to glare at me occasionally, Hon. He’ll be back. Besides, I thought you HAD a supply…"
"Ummm, well, I do, right now — but it’s … not suitable for a long-term relationship…"
"Oh?" Louise raised her eyebrows. "Why not?"
"He’s, umm, quite a bit younger than I am," Beth confided.
"You dog!" Louise slapped her on the arm. "Robbing the cradle, are you?" Beth blushed. "It’s nice, isn’t it, being desired by a young guy?"
"Very," Beth agreed, nodding.
"It does wonders for your self-image — no wonder you’ve perked up!" Louise giggled. "You’re obviously not in love, or anything."
"No," Beth agreed, "Lust will have to do. It’s pretty good, though…"
"I bet! Younger guys…" Louise ruminated a bit. "So go after Rankin — he wants to put his hands on your ass in the worst way…"
"Why, do you think?" Beth wondered.
"Because you’re oozing sex through your pores," Louise replied. "But you know what? The hilarious thing is, HE doesn’t know why, either — and it’s killing him! All he knows is that suddenly you’re a hot property…"
"Hmmmm," Beth pondered, playing with a water ring on the counter top. "I might like being HIS property…"
Louise shrugged. "You’d be an improvement over the bimbos I’ve seen him with; the only good thing about them is that they don’t last."
"Why is that, do you figure?" Beth asked. Maybe Dr. Rankin was poorly equipped…
"They’re bar flies, Hon. Being Mrs. Dr. Rankin looks good Friday night and Saturday morning, but then he pulls a couple of doubles and they realize that he’s a workaholic and he’s not rich yet."
Beth nodded. Residents caught Hell… "He’s younger…"
"That’s not stopping you now," Louise sniped. "And youth and vigor might help him keep up!"
"Yeah…" Beth pretended to primp. "I’m high maintenance that way…" Both of them giggled.
"He’s none too brave," Louise counseled. "I braced him the other day — nothing too obvious — and he looked like he was thinking about sprouting feathers."
Beth flicked a glance at the rock on Louise’s finger. "I thought…"
Louise grinned. "I’m high maintenance, too."
The women didn’t do coffee on Monday morning; Beth was off-shift, sleeping, and Candace wouldn’t have been there, anyway — she was mortified over the activities of the previous day and couldn’t face Jean yet. But Candace called Jean about nine… "I’m sending Lon over — Rick’s home, right?"
"Yes." Jean got ready to object, but…
"Work him. Make him clean the pool or mow the yard, or trim the hedges — or all three! And let him grovel a couple of dozen times while you’re at it! His little stash of blackmail materials is gone…"
"Okay," Jean agreed. "Rick could stand a little abuse, too, although I don’t think I can push him TOO hard — Beth apparently rode him until he almost foundered, yesterday!" She giggled.
"He’s young — he’ll recover," Candace opined. "Get your revenge, Honey." There was a pause, then Candace murmured in a low voice, "About yesterday…"
"Let’s not talk about it," Jean replied charitably. Toby had pulled Candace’s fangs — or at least milked the venom from them, as far as Jean was concerned — but the fewer people who knew about it, the better, Jean figured.
"Thanks," Candace croaked. "Breakfast tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Lon arrived an hour later, humble, and tried several times to deliver hat in hand apologies, but Jean wasn’t giving him any opportunities. That had given her plenty of time to read Rick the Riot Act; she put the two on the hedges, both feeling like they were wearing prison coveralls. Ironically, one of the targets was the big rhododendron that had concealed their blackmail data collection. Their attention this time was all on the outside, however, so they failed to detect Jean’s eavesdropping…
"Man, did YOU fuck up!" Rick complained. "Why couldn’t you just limit things to getting Mom to settle down and let things be?"
"I thought it was only fair," Lon sulked. "Women sure think different. If I was in their shoes…"
"You’d probably feel the same way," Rick cut him off.
"Well, at least you could talk to me about it!" Lon argued.
"Maybe," Rick agreed, "but Mom’s a different animal — you can sometimes make your point with logic — especially if she’s looking at things that way, herself. But if you make her stubborn…" He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah," Lon grunted. "Well, I know better now — I guess I’m lucky I’m not in jail or something. Man, I’m really, REALLY sorry I pushed THAT one!"
"Yeah," Rick agreed. "If you’d done that shit to some chick at school, you’d be up on charges!"
"Speaking of school, Man — how long do you think this thing is gonna last?" Lon asked.
Rick pursed his lips. "Dunno. I’d have said it wasn’t gonna happen in the first place. In the fall, though, we’re gonna be dating, or trying to … I imagine at that point that our mothers will go to being the backup source, and the whole thing will slowly fade out…"
Lon nodded. "Maybe. The problem with putting a woman on backup status is that they catch on pretty quick and they take themselves out of the pool."
Rick frowned. "That’s the normal thing, though isn’t it? Our mothers aren’t hunting for husbands — at least, not among us…"
"Are you sure?" Lon prompted. "Your mother and Toby are kinda out there — even after yesterday!"
"You could have a point — but I don’t see YOUR mother getting all moon-eyed over Toby or me — and Beth…"
"Beth…" Lon thought about that. "Beth likes a lot of dick…"
"NO SHIT!" Rick exclaimed. "I think I’m fucked out for another day, at least!"
Lon chuckled. "Beth will probably not complain about going on backup — which is a good thing, I figure. THAT piece could continue to fly, almost indefinitely — and it’s good shit!"
"Speaking of comparisons," Rick asked, "Was Mom worth it?"
"Yeah…" Lon’s eyes were hooded. "She’s a hot piece. Not totally my type…" Beth had made a serious impression on Lon. "But she’s hot. I CERTAINLY won’t be trying to get in there without permission, though! With my luck, sex with Jean is going to be limited to jacking off while licking her pussy…" Both of them laughed — but it gave Jean ideas…
Toby called later in the day, "Hi."
"Hi." Jean felt like a teenager again — hundreds of things needed saying, but she couldn’t get them out.
"How are things?" Toby finally blurted.
"Okay. Lon is here."
"What?"
"Candace sent him over — told me to work him like a dog. I’ve got Rick working alongside him, too — the yard’s going to look pretty good by the time they’re done…" Jean chuckled.
"Has he apologized?"
"He’s tried about a dozen times, but I won’t let him finish." Jean related. "I, uh, had an idea…"
"Yeah?"
"We could make him do what Candace did…"
"Eat you?" Toby asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Without getting anything back…"
Toby pursed his lips in thought. "You can do that if you like, Sweetheart, but I have a plan — one that will pretty well neutralize both Lon AND his mother."