Chapter 7: Life Goes On

Oceano, California

January 1, 1999

The New Year’s Eve celebration in the Kingsley household was a relatively quiet affair. All of the grandparental units had gone home two days after Christmas, as had all the other guests. Elsa was still on her own Christmas break, so that left Jake, Laura, Celia, Meghan, and Caydee to see in the dawning of 1999. They did so by enjoying a couple of pizzas that Jake had purchased from a San Luis Obispo take and bake establishment and washing them down with beers. Caydee went to bed at her usual time of eight o’clock. Everyone else changed into their bathing suits and went out to the hot tub shortly after she went down and enjoyed a bottle of chilled chardonnay and passed a joint around (it was the first time Meghan smoked marijuana with her employers, but not the last) until they were feeling particularly mellow. They talked for the better part of an hour on various metaphysical and gastronomical subjects before going back inside.

They all changed into their nightwear—Meghan in her signature long t-shirt without bra, Celia in a very similar outfit, Jake and Laura in sweat pants and t-shirts—and settled in for a few more drinks while they watched the Dick Clark New Year’s Rockin’ Eve production. Less than ten minutes after the ball dropped in Times Square (the event on tape delay because of the time zone difference), the house was secured and everyone went to bed. Meghan fell almost immediately to sleep—or, passed out would perhaps be a better description. Jake, Laura, and Celia, however, enjoyed each other’s naked company for another hour or so before they finally called it a night as well.

Meghan, who was the only one of the group not used to regular alcohol intake on that level, had a fairly vicious hangover the next morning, but that was okay. She did not have to get up at 7:00 AM with Caydee and was able to sleep in until nearly 10:00 AM. Laura did have to get up at 7:00 AM with Caydee, but she was good natured about it. She got her daughter changed and fed and got the coffee going while Celia enjoyed a little ride on the pony in Laura’s marital bed with Laura’s husband. Since returning from South America the three of them had gotten over their previous restriction about all for one or none for all, especially now that it was almost time for Celia to leave them again and return to the tour.

Jake and Celia took turns showering after and then dressed in their traveling clothes since New Year’s Day was a travel day for them. It was time to head up to Oregon and get ready for the first day in the studio on Monday, January 4^th. Celia would not be recording anything, but she planned to stay with her friends and lovers until it was time for her to fly to Dallas on January 11. Once Jake and Celia were ready to face the day, Caydee and Laura took over the bathroom to get ready for their day. Laura had let Caydee take a shower with her a few weeks before and now that was the only way the toddler wanted to be bathed and have her hair washed (it made her feel like a Big Girl to take a shower). Laura did not allow her to indulge in this very often—her nightly baths were still her primary cleansing ritual—but maybe every three or four days she would let her skip the nighttime bath and shower with her in the morning. The first of the year was one such day.

Jake grabbed a cup of coffee and then started working on breakfast. He made a panful of scrambled eggs mixed with ground sausage and crushed up frozen tater tots. He then wrapped the concoction in flour tortillas with a little salsa and grated cheese, forming breakfast burritos. He constructed eight large burritos and two small ones for Caydee. What they did not eat would be wrapped in foil and taken to Oregon with them for easy snacks during the settling in process.

“Bee-toes!” Caydee yelled when she saw what Daddy was making. “Caydee eat bee-toe!”

“Caydee can eat a burrito once it’s finished and cooled down,” Jake told her.

“Bee-toe now!” she demanded.

“Burrito later,” Jake countered.

“Pleeeeeea!” she intoned.

“You know the rules, little girl,” Jake told her. “You get to have your little breakfast when Mommy or Daddy gets you up, but you eat big breakfast when the rest of us eat big breakfast.”

“Awww,” she said.

“Yeah, life’s a bitch, isn’t it?” Jake said. “Always being repressed by The Man. But keep in mind that most people only get to have one breakfast every morning.”

“Shitshow,” she said sadly.

“Exactly,” Jake agreed.

Everyone else had already eaten and everything had been cleaned up before Meghan finally came staggering out of her bedroom. She was freshly showered and dressed in traveling clothes of her own since she would be accompanying the Kingsleys to Oregon for the duration of their time there. She heated up one of the burritos in the microwave and then ate it listlessly at the kitchen nook table. She drank a great deal of orange juice while she ate.

“A bit of a headache?” Jake asked her sympathetically.

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “And I’m really thirsty.”

“Yeah, that beer/wine/ganja combo will do that,” he said. “You need to drink lots of water or Gatorade. And wash down a couple of Tylenol and a vitamin B-12 pill with it. That’ll get you feeling better by the time we go wheels-up.”

“Where is the Tylenol and the B-12?” she asked miserably.

Jake reached into a cabinet in the kitchen and pulled the bottles down. “Here you go,” he said, setting them down next to her.

“Thanks,” she said. She then groaned. “I’m never going to drink again.”

Jake chuckled. “I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that,” he told her.

They made the drive to SLO Regional Airport 11:00 AM, all of them piling into Jake’s BMW after filling the trunk with all of their baggage, including Caydee’s toys, her portable crib, and her huge diaper and clothing suitcase. It would have been much easier and more practical to take Laura’s minivan for this particular trip as it had considerably more room and storage space, but Jake refused to get into the vehicle, even as a passenger. To this point he had still not even so much as made physical contact with the Sienna.

They arrived at the airport and it took the better part of twenty minutes to get all the baggage loaded into the cargo compartment of the Avanti. Everyone took their seats and they took off into the chilly winter air at 11:35, exactly on schedule. They made the twenty-five-minute flight back to Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles and met the Nerdly family there. The adult Nerdlys’ luggage was able to fit into the cargo compartment—just barely—but Kelvin’s luggage had to be secured to the back couch, taking up the last available seat except for the toilet. When Jake did the math and added up all the passenger weights, the cargo weight, and the weight of enough fuel to get them all the way to Coos Bay with a one hour and fifteen-minute reserve time, he found that they were at 12,022 pounds, only seventy-eight pounds less than the maximum takeoff weight but more than six hundred pounds over the maximum landing weight.

Jake did not particularly care for flying this heavy. It meant that if something went wrong after takeoff he would have to circle around long enough to burn off six hundred pounds of fuel or risk significantly damaging the plane on touchdown. Still, it was the way most commercial pilots started their journeys all the time, so he elected to keep the extra fuel reserve instead of sacrificing thirty minutes of range in favor of a plane he could bring immediately down if he had to. He told none of the passengers how close to the line they were, nor did he give the slightest hint of his discomfort.

They roared into the sky uneventfully just past noon. The plane was a bit more sluggish in its climb and in its responsiveness to the controls, but they still made it to their assigned altitude of Flight Level 320 within twenty minutes of wheels-up. The ride was a bit bumpy (much to Caydee’s delight and Celia’s discomfort) until they were over the southern San Joaquin Valley, at which point it was fairly smooth sailing. Laura, Caydee, Sharon, and Meghan all slept the majority of the two-hour trip. Jake and Celia chatted among themselves. Nerdly spent much of the flight explaining the physics of powered flight to an attentive and fascinated Kelvin.

“It’s the shape of the airfoil that keeps us in the air then?” Kelvin asked at one point.

“Exactly,” Nerdly said, pleased. “The air being forced under the wing as it moves is what produces lift. The regulation of that lift with the control surfaces is what allows Uncle Jake to climb, turn, stay in straight and level flight, and descend.”

“Because the lift is stronger than the gravity that is trying to pull us down!” Kelvin said excitedly.

“That is correct,” Nerdly told him. “Lift is stronger than gravity and the thrust created by the engines is stronger than the drag caused by the atmosphere we are flying through.”

“That’s badass,” Kelvin said.

“It is indeed,” Nerdly agreed.

“Hey, Uncle Jake!” Kelvin yelled up front. “Do you know how your plane stays in the air?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” Jake replied with a smile. “I thought it flew just because we all believe it can fly.”

“No,” Kelvin scoffed. “That’s how money works, not flying. Let me explain it to you.”

And so, for the last twenty-five minutes of flight before it was time to start the descent, Kelvin was allowed to sit on Celia’s lap in the copilot seat and explain to Jake just how it really was that his plane could fly.

“That’s pretty cool shit, K-dude,” Jake told him when the lecture was over. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“No problem,” Kelvin said. “You would think they would teach this stuff in pilot school.”

“You would think,” Jake agreed. “Anyway, you better go pee and then get back to your seat now. We’re gonna be starting down soon.”

“Okay, Uncle Jake,” Kelvin said, pleased that he had been able to teach someone something.

As soon as he left to go utilize the bathroom in the rear, Celia looked at Jake. “Is that how it really works?” she asked.

He nodded. “Pretty spot-on,” he told her.

“I’ve never heard a four-year-old use the term ‘Bernoulli’s principle’ before,” she said. “In fact, I’ve never heard an adult use it either. That’s a real thing?”

“It’s a real thing,” he assured her. “Bernoulli’s principle is the reason why this plane flies, or why dolphins and fish can go up and down in the water, or why your fan can blow air on you.”

She shook her head. “Kelvin is creepy-smart,” she said.

Jake simply shrugged. “He’s got the DNA of the Nerdlys and is being raised by them. What did you expect?”

Those who arrived on Jake’s plane were the first to get to Coos Bay. The others were all traveling by automobile since they would need a few vehicles for transport during the five months they would be in town to make their CDs. Ted and Phil were driving up in Laura’s Lexus. Lenny, Ben, Ben’s wife and his daughter were all driving up in Lenny’s Suburban, which would be used for general V-tach transport in Coos Bay. V-tach would be housed in the same beachfront home that Matt Tisdale and his band had used (and despite there being more people this time, Jake was expecting considerably less contact with the Coos County sheriff’s department). Jake, Laura, Caydee, Celia, Natalie (and occasionally Natalie’s husband, Mark, the pilot), the Nerdlys, and Kelvin would all be staying in the cliffside house that KVA owned. Meghan would stay with them and serve as nanny for both Caydee and Kelvin during the daily sessions (she was getting a considerable amount of travel pay, as well as a healthy extra funding from the Nerdlys). Pauline, who would be contributing backup singing for a few of Jake’s tunes, would stay in Obie’s house when she and Tabby were in town. All were scheduled to arrive sometime on the 2^nd of January. Their equipment—the guitars, amps, keyboards, drums, and other instruments—were all being shipped to the studio by truck and would arrive sometime on the 3^rd of January.

Everything and everyone arrived on time. Lenny was in charge of V-tach and he had been given a credit card and a budget of a thousand dollars a week to pay for the band’s food, fuel, alcohol, and other entertainment expenses. Meghan would be left with Laura’s Lexus every recording day (Jake and the other musicians would use the KVA van for their commute) and she was enlisted to be the grocery shopper for the household. Jake, Sharon, and Natalie would all rotate cooking meals and would give Meghan a shopping list to fill each morning. She and the two kids would then make the trip sometime in the late morning or early afternoon, depending on when Caydee woke up from her nap, and she would pay for the groceries with a KVA business credit card.

The first day in the studio went pretty much as expected. Nearly all of it was spent assembling equipment, wiring everything up, and then painstakingly sound-checking every single instrument, every single microphone, and every single effects pedal until the Nerdlys were satisfied that audio perfection was almost (but not quite) within reach. They did no actual recording of anything on the first day. The second day, however, they were able to start laying down the rhythm tracks for Jake’s tune The Song.

It had begun once again.

They fell into a routine by the end of the first week. Jake had decided that they would try working five day weeks at first with the option to increase to six day weeks if they fell behind schedule or stalled. Mondays and Wednesdays were the V-tach days. Tuesdays and Thursdays were the Jake Kingsley days. Fridays were open days, when they could work on whatever was falling behind or needed extra attention. The first Friday was used by Jake. They were already falling behind on The Song because of Nerdly dissatisfaction with the tempo changes between verses and chorus.

Celia made no attempt to hide where she was sleeping during this first week. Everyone staying in the house already knew what the score was between her and the Kingsleys so no eyebrows were raised and no snide remarks were passed when she trudged up and closed herself into the master suite with Jake and Laura each night or when she emerged from the same suite the next morning. She spent every day with them at the recording studio, usually watching from the main room at the soundboard with Sharon, sharing her input with her, but otherwise not contributing to the music being made.

Celia did not go anywhere but the recording studio. The story of her medical issue, her postponed tour date, and the rumors that she had been pregnant and had to have an abortion were still high on the radar of the entertainment press. They desperately wanted to stalk her so they could take pictures of her and shout inane questions, but nobody knew where she was. The last the press had heard from her she had been in Venezuela with the Kingsleys. They had tracked Jake’s plane from Barquisimeto to the Dominican Republic, and from there to Jacksonville, but they did not know where Celia had gone after that—or even if she had gone anywhere. From Jacksonville onward, Jake had not put her name on the manifest attached to the flight plans he filed. This was against FAA regulations, of course, but it was a minor infraction and one that gave the impression that Celia had stayed on the east coast while the Kingsleys had returned home, flying by themselves from Jacksonville to Oklahoma City and then from there to Denver for a three day layover and then on to San Luis Obispo.

WHERE IS CELIA? asked more than one headline in the ensuing month. PAULINE KINGSLEY HAS NO ANSWER. The obvious answer—that she was staying with the Kingsleys in their Oceano home while she recovered—had simply not occurred to anyone.

The first weekend of the Oregon trip began. It was also the last weekend that Celia would be staying with them. Jake was flying to Heritage on Monday so he could meet his mother’s high school orchestra and introduce Any Given Sunday to them. The project had not been given a green light by the administration and the school board and the PTA just yet, but Mary told them that the first two bodies were very much in favor of the deal. Celia would be flying with him on that day. And from there, she would catch a plane to Dallas to join up with the rest of her band so they could do a few dress rehearsals before the first show on the 15^th. Jake, Laura, and Celia were all anticipating the sorrow of departure.

The three of them had wild and steamy threesome sex with each other on Saturday and Sunday night. After they collapsed into a naked, sweaty heap around midnight on Monday morning, all felt a bit melancholy, knowing it would their last time together for several months.

“We’ll be in Los Angeles on March 15^th,” Celia told them. “That will round out this leg. We’ll have a tour break for two weeks or so before we head back east to make up the dates we missed.”

“We’ll still be up here in Oregon,” Jake reminded her.

“I’ll be happy to travel,” Celia said.

“Well ... we’ll have to see what the fuel prices are like then,” Jake said. “It’s expensive to fly back and forth all the time, you know.”

That earned him a little squeeze of his testicles from his wife. “Oww,” he said. “That wasn’t nice!”

“We’ll be there,” Laura told Celia. “We’ll catch the show and then personally drive you back to Malibu for an intimate reunion.”

Celia smiled. “I’m already looking forward to it.”

They drifted off to sleep, Jake, as usual, sleeping in the primary wet spot in the middle of the mattress. They slept well. At 6:50 AM, the alarm went off. It was Jake’s turn to get up with Caydee. He rolled over the top of Laura—causing her to grunt unhappily—and put his feet on the floor. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and then made his way into the master bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth before kissing his daughter good morning. He pulled on a t-shirt and then went out into the hallway. The room immediately to the right of the master suite was one of the standard-sized rooms. For this particular trip, Caydee and Kelvin were sharing it. He went inside and found both of them wide awake. Caydee was standing up in her crib and Kelvin was lounging on the bed in his pajama bottoms. He was telling Caydee about the ramifications of the gravitational constant and its effects on a planetary orbit. She was listening to him but occasionally throwing in a ‘fuck it’ to some of the more exotic parts of the theory.

“Good morning, Caydee-girl!” he greeted. “Good morning K-dude! Are we ready to face the day?”

“Fuck it,” Caydee said simply.

“It does not matter if we are ready or not,” Kelvin added. “There is no way to avoid facing the day.”

“Good point,” Jake agreed, walking over to the crib. He pulled Caydee out and lifted her high in the air. When he brought her back down, he kissed her face and then her belly, making her giggle. He could feel by the sheer weight on her lower half that she needed to be changed.

“You smell funny,” Kelvin told Jake.

“Uh ... sorry,” Jake said, blushing a little. He knew that he smelled strongly of Celia’s and Laura’s musk.

“Mom and Dad smell like that after they have private time,” Kelvin said. “Were you and Aunt Laura having private time?”

Jake’s blush increased. “Uh ... well ... I uh ... I guess we were. That’s what’s great about being married. You get to have private time.”

“Did Celia have private time with you?” he asked next, nearly making Jake choke. “I did not know that three people could have private time at once.”

“Uh ... well ... uh ... I need to change Caydee and get her dressed, K-dude. Don’t you need to go pee?”

“Oh ... yeah, I do,” he said, noticing the urge now that it was pointed out. “Excuse me, Uncle Jake.”

“You are excused,” Jake said with relief.

Kelvin disappeared in the direction of the nearest bathroom. “Jesus fucking Christ,” Jake muttered.

“Shitshow,” Caydee agreed.

He quickly changed Caydee’s diaper (it was only pee, thankfully) and then dressed her in a pair of stretchy jeans and a pullover shirt. He put socks on her feet (she had learned to live with socks by this point in her life) but did not put shoes on her. They went downstairs and Jake turned on the television to the public broadcasting channel where Sesame Street was now in progress. Caydee loved Sesame Street and she sat down to watch it.

Meghan came out of her bedroom, freshly dressed in jeans and a pullover sweater. She was ready to assume childcare duty until the band returned from the studio on or about five o’clock. Shortly after she emerged, the Nerdlys and Kelvin came down the stairs as well. Kelvin was also a fan of Sesame Street so he joined his honorary cousin on the couch to watch the episode.

“All right then,” Jake said. “I’m gonna go up and get showered.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Nerdly.

“Yes,” said Sharon sourly. “And thank you for letting Kelvin know that private time can be shared by three.”

Jake gave an embarrassed smile. “Only if life is really kind to you,” he said with utmost sincerity.

When he returned to the master suite he heard the sound of the shower still running. He frowned a little, irritated. Both of the ladies should have been done showering by this point so that he could start getting ready. His frown turned to a smile, however, when he walked into the master bath and saw the reason why the shower was still running. Both Laura and Celia were in the large stall. Laura was down on her knees, her face planted firmly between Celia’s legs. Celia’s head was back and her eyes were closed while her fingers were entwined in Laura’s red hair. She was panting, obviously quite near orgasm.

“Excellent,” Jake said, enjoying the show. This was definitely the way to start a Monday.

Neither of them noticed Jake’s presence as he watched them through the glass. Celia moaned loudly as she came and then Laura stood up and pulled their bodies together, angling her mouth toward the taller woman’s.

“If you kiss me, I have to brush my teeth again,” Celia panted.

“So?” Laura asked. “I have to brush mine again. Don’t you want to taste yourself all over my tongue?”

“Actually, I do,” Celia admitted.

They put their mouths together and began a long, passionate tongue kiss with each other. By this point, Little Jake was very interested and starting to wonder if there was a place for him in that shower stall. Big Jake quickly stripped off his clothes and opened the door.

This startled the two ladies. They quickly broke apart and looked at him.

“Madre de Dios,” Celia exclaimed. “How long were you watching us?”

“Long enough to develop an interest,” he said, stepping in with them and putting his nakedness into contact with theirs.

“Stop it!” Laura said, pulling away. “We just showered and you’re all dirty and smelly!”

“I’m dirty and smelly from you two,” he countered. “And you can’t just tease someone with a lesbian shower scene and then not follow through.”

“We didn’t know you were there,” Celia said.

“Oh, come on,” Jake said. “Don’t be that way.”

“We just wanted one more quick session together before I left,” Celia said.

“Don’t I get the same thing?” Jake asked.

“Well...” Laura said with a sigh, looking down at Jake’s erection. “I suppose I could take care of this real quick the same way I took care of Celia.”

“That doesn’t give C and I a last session,” Jake pointed out.

“True,” Laura said, nodding. Both of them knew that Celia did not enjoy having a man ejaculate in her mouth, so there was no suggestion that she perform the deed.

“I have an idea,” Celia said.

“Let’s hear it,” Jake said.

“Why don’t you hold onto that thing for now,” she said, looking at the thing in question a little lustfully. “I’ll have use for it later.”

“Later when?” Jake asked. “We’re flying to Sacramento and I’m dropping you at the airport and then I’m flying to Cypress.”

“You and Teach found a way to put things together in the air before, didn’t you?” she asked.

Laura smiled a naughty smile. Her in-air pounding was one of her fondest sexual memories, right up there with her and Jake’s first time and their first time with Celia. “Yes, we did,” she said.

“Ever since you told me about that, I’ve wanted to try it,” Celia said. “I think maybe today is the day.”

Jake was wavering. “It’s kind of dangerous to do that,” he said without much conviction.

“I’ll wear my red dress,” Celia said. “And my thong panties that match it.”

“That would make for easy access,” Laura had to agree.

“All right,” Jake said, envisioning Celia in that particular dress. “I’m in.”

The two ladies giggled. “All right then,” Laura said. “We gotta get dried off and brush our teeth. You need to get clean.”

He got clean. He made a mental note to take a pack of Caydee’s baby wipes on the flight so he would be able to get clean again before making the trip to his parents’ house.

Laura and the Nerdlys all said their goodbyes to Celia, giving her hugs and kisses and wishing her well, before climbing in the van for the drive to the studio and their day’s work. Meghan, Caydee, and Kelvin all said their goodbyes and gave their hugs just before she and Jake left. Natalie (who was not needed at the studio on V-tach days) drove them to the airport in Laura’s Lexus. She gave her hugs and kisses to Celia while Jake started prepping the plane for the flight.

He filed his flight plan and then had the FBO pump in enough fuel for him to fly to Sacramento, take off again, and then fly to Cypress Municipal. They took their seats and then lifted into the sky at 9:35 AM, which gave them plenty of time to get Celia to Sacramento International in time for her 12:30 PM flight to Dallas-Fort Worth.

“Okay,” Celia said once they were above ten thousand feet and the cockpit was no longer sterile. “Explain to me the logistics of this whole sex in the air thing.”

Jake was getting excited by the thought of doing Celia in the air (with his wife’s enthusiastic endorsement no-less) but he was also nervous about the potentially vulnerable position it would put the flight in if anything went wrong while his butt was driving him in and out of her body instead of planted in the seat. “We found the best way to do it,” he told her, “is for you to stand in the aisle and lean over the pilot and copilot seats while I do you from behind.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “I can get into that. Should I take my panties off?”

“No,” he said with a smile. “Leave them on. I’ll pull them to the side.”

“Mmmm, okay,” she said with a smile. “So ... we just get up and do it? No foreplay?”

“No foreplay,” he confirmed. “We need to do it quickly so my time out of seat is minimal.”

“But what about ... you know ... getting you hard? And getting me wet? I mean, I’m a little juicy right now just thinking about it, but I’m not ready for full-on penetration just yet.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, nodding, “that is kind of an issue. When Laura and I did this we had just come off a five day stretch of celibacy because we were staying in her brother’s place and sleeping in Chase and Grace’s room. We were pretty primed for action and didn’t need any foreplay. Now, however, I already came twice less than twelve hours ago. I might need some stimulation to get ready first.”

“Hmmm,” Celia said, thinking about it. “Maybe I could provide that. Can I unbuckle now?”

They were now passing through fourteen thousand feet and well inland. There was turbulence but it was minimal, not even enough to scare Celia. “Yeah, I think it’s safe. But what do you have in mind? I don’t want to start doing anything until we’re well established in cruise flight.”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Celia said, releasing her harness. “Except maybe look over here every once in a while.”

With that, she turned sideways in her seat and spread her legs widely. She rucked up the hem of her dress, allowing him to see her smooth thighs and the crotch of her red thong panties. She was cleanly shaven—he had already noted that in the shower earlier. She put her right hand between her legs and began to idly play with herself, caressing her inner thighs and sliding her fingers up and down the fabric covering her gates of heaven.

“Okay,” Jake said, watching for a moment and then quickly putting his eyes back on the instruments. He made a quick check, made another quick check outside, and then looked back between her legs. “This could work.” It was, in fact, already working. His manhood began to stiffen up.

As they climbed higher into the sky, Celia’s self-ministrations became more and more enthusiastic. Soon, she had the crotch of her panties pulled to the side and her fingers were sliding in and out of her slit. Jake tried to keep most of his attention on flying. He had to switch radio frequencies at one point, had to calibrate the altimeter to sea-level standard once they passed eighteen thousand feet, and had to adjust the auto-throttle once they finally reached their assigned altitude of thirty-one thousand feet. He managed to complete all of the steps but his erection was now quite rigid. He could smell Celia’s musk in the cramped cockpit, could hear the wet squishing of her fingers sliding in and out, could see that her clitoris was now swollen and her lips were glistening with moisture.