Chapter 9

Dave drove the Jeep slowly down the street, looking for a house number while thinking about the conversation he'd just had with Collette.

So both he and his sister were single again. And Patty and Morton were having problems – like he was supposed to fix that somehow?

Shit was happening all over, and after comforting his sister about her break-up, he decided that he wasn't going to sit around crying about losing Sammy. After all she'd dumped him after he'd tried to come clean. It was time to move on to someone that didn't see him as a second choice – a consolation prize.

He realized he was passing Muriel and Julie's house in their neighborhood with its eclectic mix of homes. In fact, he spotted Muriel working in her garden, and smiled as he tooted his horn at her. They exchanged waves.

Thinking of Julie reminded him of the night he and Sammy had first made love, next to Bobby and Julie. He pushed those thoughts aside and checked the address he was searching for again.

Muriel absently put her gardening gloves, spade, and dandelion-digger in the box on the porch and went inside, rubbing her arms to warm them. Julie looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at her.

"Are you done playing in the dirt for the day?" she asked.

"What? Oh, I suppose so. But I know the weeds are out there just waiting to pop up as soon as they know I'm out of sight."

"You know, a weed has never popped up in front of me either," Julie replied with mock seriousness. "It must be a conspiracy."

"Hush, you." She sat in a seat by the window and looked out at the street.

"Something wrong, Grandma?" Muriel wasn't really her grandmother, but she had taken to calling her that instinctively after she had taken her in.

"I just saw your friend Dave drive by," she replied distractedly.

"Oh?"

"Um hmm."

"And that bothers you because... ?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"Grandma," Julie said sternly.

She gave a dismissive gesture. "It's nothing. I've just been thinking. After what happened to Ron, I've had a lot of things going through this old head of mine."

Julie sobered. "Yeah; I still can't believe he's gone. He was so nice to me."

"He was a good man. Losing him reminded me that you never know how much time you have left before the lord calls you home."

Julie moved to kneel at her feet and took her hands in hers. "You've got a lot of time left."

She looked at the young girl, her skin so smooth and pink and her eyes so bright, with her firm hands holding her spotted and wrinkled ones.

"No; no I don't, Julie. Now don't argue with me. I'm okay with it. But..."

"But what, Grandma?"

She looked a little guilty. "Well, I have a sister in Florida."

Julie gasped. "You never told me that! I just knew about your nephew's family here."

"Well, we haven't seen each other for years. We used to be quite close when we were younger, but her husband got a job down there many years ago, and she stayed there after he passed away. But we still write to each other all the time, and talk on the phone on special occasions."

"You should go see her then! That would be so much fun for you."

Muriel didn't reply, avoiding her eyes to look out the window again. Julie was confused for a moment, but then a thought came to her.

"Muriel ... do you want to be with your sister in Florida; to move there?"

"No, honey, I'm happy here. I wouldn't want the weeds to take over my garden after all the work I've put into it," she said, but her chuckle sounded forced.

Julie looked at her closely. "You're thinking you can't move there because of me, aren't you?" she asked gently.

She shrugged. "You're my family, too."

"I love you too, Grandma. But you don't have to stay here because of me."

"But I can't drag you off to Florida, dear! After all you've been through I can't disrupt your education and take you away from all your friends to live in a community for seniors a thousand miles away."

"But Grandma..."

"And I don't think Bobby would ever forgive me," she added with a grin. Julie's mouth closed abruptly and she blushed faintly.

"But seeing Dave drive by reminded me of something," Muriel continued before Julie could recover. "Just hypothetically, if I were to move ... we might be able to find a way for you to stay here."

Julie fidgeted. "Um, I don't think that, uh..."

Muriel smiled knowingly. "Oh, I know you wouldn't want to stay with my family here – living with your ex-boyfriend would be uncomfortable to say the least."

"Well..."

"But when your mother ... left you, I wasn't the only one that offered to take you in. As I recall, both Dave and Collette, and Bobby and Sammy, wanted you to live with them."

"I remember," Julie said in a small voice.

"So I was thinking: perhaps you could finish out the school year living with one of those families? Things are pretty disrupted with the Ramirez family right now, but you might be a good distraction. And I'm sure Collette's parents would welcome having a girl around the house again while their daughter's away at college.

"Then after school is out, you could come spend the summer with me in Florida. Then you could decide where you would like to be for your last year of high school."

Julie was overwhelmed, and fought down a feeling of panic.

"Or..." Muriel said softly, "you could stop badgering me about my sister, and you and I will stay together, right here. You aren't going to be abandoned again, Julie. That won't happen as long as I'm still breathing."

Julie stood up and hugged the little lady. "Thank you, Grandma. But you should move. I think I know what I'd like to do – you said Dave just drove by?"

Raul's eyes fluttered open, to find Barbara beaming down at him, a tear rolling down her cheek.

She picked up his hand. "Hey baby."

"Hey."

"Glad to have you back."

"Hi, Daddy," Sammy said, holding her baby sister in her arms. Bobby smiled over her shoulder, his hands on her hips.

He smiled tiredly at them. "I love you," he said, looking at his wife. "All of you," he added.

He sucked in his breath with a wince.

"Are you all right?" Barbara asked worriedly.

"My chest kind of hurts."

"Sammy, get the doctor," Barbara said quickly.

"No," Raul said calmly. "Bobby can do that."

Bobby nodded and hurried from the room.

Raul turned his eyes to his daughter. "Sammy, remember when your mom ... came and spoke to you?"

Her eyes widened; she nodded.

"Just before I woke up, she came to see me, too." He reached to take her hand in his. "You're going to be all right," he said softly. "I love you."

"Raul, what are you..." Barbara began.

"I love you too, Dad," Sammy replied, an odd feeling of serenity coming over her.

"Your mother and I will always be watching over you, sweetie. Keep Dave and Collette in your life. They have some growing up to do, just like you do, so be patient. And Bobby will always love you. Keep him and Gina safe – promise me?"

"I promise."

"Baby, what are you talking about? You're going to be fine," Barb protested.

"Sammy, I need to talk to Barbara now."

Sammy gave her father a hug and a kiss. "Goodbye, Daddy."

Dave pulled up in front of a small rambler-style house that had probably been in its prime during the Eisenhower administration.

When the attractive woman opened the door he could see the resemblance immediately.

"Yes?" she asked curiously, glancing at the new-looking Jeep over his shoulder.

"Hi, you must be Rachael's mom? I'm Dave Simpson, a friend of hers from school – is she home?" he asked politely.

She smiled broadly. "Hi, Dave, it's so nice to finally meet you; I'm Becca. Rachael's told me so much about you, please come on in. Is she expecting you?"

"Really - she has? Uh, no, this is kind of spur-of-the–moment."

"How nice! Why don't you wait in the living room and I'll let her know you're here; I'm sure she'll want to make herself pretty before she sees you."

"Oh, uh, sure, no problem."

"Be right back." She turned and bustled around a corner.

He stood looking around the room. The furnishings were obviously old or inexpensive, but clean and well maintained. A coffee table was laden with People magazines and the kind of tabloids sold in supermarket checkout lines. A row of photos of Rachael at various ages was lined up on a bookshelf, including a large one of her in her cheerleader uniform. Sprinkled in were some shots of Becca and Rachael with their arms around each other.

In a few minutes Becca came back to rest a hand on his arm. She stood close enough for him to smell her perfume.

"She'll be down in a bit; I'm supposed to make sure you don't leave before she's ready," she said with a girlish giggle.

"She doesn't have to go to any trouble, I just wanted to say hello."

She shook her head and grinned at him. "Boys are still as clueless as when I was your age. So how does the baseball team look like this year? Think you'll be going back to state?"

Obviously Rachael really had talked about him. "We'll be pretty good, I guess. I don't know about state: we had a lot of pitchers that graduated."

"Rachael said you were good enough to get a scholarship, maybe even get drafted by the pros."

He blinked; he didn't remember ever saying anything like that. "I don't know. I guess it depends a lot on how the team does this year."

"Do you have some younger pitchers ready to step up?" she asked shrewdly.

"We'll see. Our best one may not play this year – his dad got hurt and he's helping out with the family business."

She was about to respond when Rachael came into the room. She was wearing a demure smile, and a yellow knee-length summer dress, its strapped top showing off her firm shoulders and arms. She was barefoot, her small feet displaying matching yellow nails.

"You look nice," he said softly, feeling her mother's eyes on him.

"Thank you," she said, and after a glance at her mom gave him a brief kiss on the lips. "This is a nice surprise. Did you want to go for a drive?"

"Oh, you don't have to leave to have some privacy, honey," said her mom. "I was just getting ready to run to the mall anyway."

"Oh, alright. You want to hang out, Dave? Are you hungry or anything?"

"Sure, what have you got?" he replied, and both women laughed.

"Let's go see," Rachael replied.

The two teens headed for the kitchen as Becca got a coat out of the closet. "Honey, could I talk to you for a second before I go?" she called to her daughter.

"Yeah Mom?"

Looking to make sure Dave was out of earshot she whispered, "How long do you think you'll need?"

"Need for what?"

"Don't be stupid."

"I told you, I can't rush it - he has a girlfriend."

"He wouldn't be here if he didn't want to be more than friends. Pro ballplayers make millions, honey, and he's already got a nice car. Let him have some of the good stuff."

"Don't push me, Mother - you'll just screw things up like you always do."

"Oh, come on, like you don't want to," she smirked. "He could be our ticket out of this dump. Hell, let me know if he has any mother-daughter fantasies – I'd love to try out that big dick you told me about."

"Jesus, Mom! I don't need your help – I got him here, didn't I? Now go."

Giving her a 'don't-screw-it-up' look, she went out the door.

Rachael took a deep breath before returning to the kitchen to find Dave's head inside the refrigerator.

"A little hungry are we?" she teased.

"I'm a growing boy. How about I order a pizza?" He didn't comment on how little there was in the fridge.

Her hands twisted together for a moment. "Uh, my mom just left and I don't have much..."

"My treat," he interrupted.

"Then sure, that sounds good," she said with a smile. "I don't know who delivers around here though."

"No problem, we can look it up."

They found the number for the nearest pizza parlor with a delivery service, and Dave called to order a large with everything and a liter of diet soda.

"Would you like to see the house before it gets here?" she asked.

"Sure."

The tour finished up in her bedroom, and they sat on her bed chatting.

"Man, that is one full closet," Dave commented.

"Yeah. I see my dad every other weekend, and he usually takes me to the mall to buy me clothes - I think mostly to piss off my mom. She'd rather have the cash." She grinned but then looked into her lap pensively.

"I'm sorry," he said automatically.

"They got divorced a couple years ago."

"You always do dress nice."

"You're sweet. I'm glad you dropped by."

She put her hand on his shoulder before leaning over to kiss him softly. He put his arms around her and returned her kiss, his hands rubbing her back. When they came up for air she gave him a questioning look.

He leaned in to kiss her again, but she put her hands on his chest to hold him back.

"You know the rules, right, Dave? We can have some fun, but we can't have sex. I won't do that to Sammy."

He stared into her eyes, his own full of pain. "Sammy and I broke up."

She gasped, her hand briefly covering her mouth before she drew him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Dave," she breathed.

His grip on her body tightened. Eventually he said softly, "Thanks."

"It's okay - I'm glad you're here."

He smiled. "It felt right, after ... after what you said."

She arched her eyebrows. "That I wanted to be next in line?"

"Well, yeah. It was nice to feel wanted – like I was a first choice. With Sammy..."

She reached up to stop him with a finger to his lips. "That's between you and her. You're right: I do want to go out with you. But I don't want to be your rebound girl."

"You're not. I didn't come here expecting anything. But I wanted you to know what happened - that I'm free, if you're still interested in going out."

"I'd like that."

"Cool."

They grinned at each other, but his faded quickly. He looked out the window, and she heard him sigh. She made a decision. "Hey."

"Hmm?"

She pushed his shoulders down to the bed. He couldn't read her expression as she stared down at him for a moment, then reached for his belt.

He grasped her hands in his. "I told you I didn't come here expecting anything."

She pulled her hands free and resumed freeing his jeans. "I know. But you're a friend who's feeling down. Let me make you feel better."

He held her eyes, debating whether to protest further. He lay back, and silently lifted up when she pulled down. She was surprised to see he lay flaccid – it wasn't a state she was accustomed to finding when seducing a man.

She put her hands on either side of his hips, bent down and brought her lips to the tip for a gentle kiss. Keeping her hands away, she began a gentle and tender caress with her lips and tongue along his length, until the wrinkles of flesh began to slowly stretch and smooth out.

The skin under her mouth was cool at first, beginning to warm as the blood stirred and began to fill him. She remembered his girth, and took advantage before he was engorged to comfortably take him fully inside, her tongue moving slowly from side to side as she withdrew and engulfed him in slow progressions up and down his lengthening shaft.