Chapter 7

At first, I thought I’d heard my sister wrong, but the hum of the hot tub wasn’t that loud. Even the water splashing against the side as the bubbles rose wasn’t that loud. Her words had been clear.

“He offered you a car for a blowjob,” I said.

“Yeah. And he did it in a real slimy way.”

“Like how?”

“Well, remember my sophomore year, when I was complaining about getting to my job?”

“Yeah. You had that part-time thing at the mall.”

“Yeah. Sephora. And I had to take the bus and it sucked.”

“I remember you complaining about the bus.” I had a pretty clear memory of her bitching almost continuously over Thanksgiving one year.

“Yeah, well Dad said that maybe he could help me. So I got all excited, you know? And he dragged it out for a while and then suggested I come home and we’d figure something out. This was before Brenda, so he was living alone, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember that.” Dad had had a “swinging bachelor’s pad” near the museum.

“So I get there, and he stalls. We go out for dinner and he actually orders wine for both of us.”

“You were, what, twenty?”

“Yeah,” she said, “but I didn’t get carded. Anyway, we ate and talked and I was getting antsy, you know?”

I nodded.

“So ... over dessert, I point blank asked. ‘Hey, Dad, what about the car?’ and he said, ‘Well, I can do that if you do something for me.’”

My gut sank. I couldn’t believe my dad had said that ... except I could.

“Yeah.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t want more,” I said.

“Oh, he did. But when I said that sex with me would be wrong, he said that a blowjob wasn’t really sex.”

I snorted. “Fucking Clinton.”

“Yeah, fucking Clinton.” She actually smiled as she said that.

“So what’d you do?”

“Grabbed my stuff when we got back to his place and left. Slept on the train back to school.”

“Ugh.”

“Yeah.”

“He ever try again?”

She shook her head. “He started screwing Brenda instead.”

“Well, that’s something to be grateful for.”

“Yeah, she’s a bitch, but she’s good for something.”

We shared a grin.

“Well,” I said, “I’m sorry that Dad was such a slime.”

“Thanks. I’m really glad he’s not here.”

“Me, too.” I grinned at her. “This is a lot better.”

“Yeah.” She raised her glass and then lowered it. She gave me a mock pout. “I need a refill.”

“Uh-huh,” I joked. “And you want your little brother to get out and take care of it for you.”

She grinned and nodded.

I rolled my eyes, but hoisted myself out of the tub. Once again, Natalie’s eyes dropped to my dick, which was definitely not hard after that story, as I did.

“Thanks, Brandon. I owe you.”

We drank more wine and talked about anything but Dad. Mostly about food, actually. That led to a decision to go out for lunch. We had plenty of food, but both of us were ready to let someone else do the cooking. We got out of the tub, got dressed, and I went to scrape off the car.

What was nice, was that Natalie was nonchalant about being nude while she dried off and got dressed. We’d crossed some threshold where it was no longer a big deal. That didn’t prevent me from looking, especially when I was curious about the tattoo on her mound, but I never got a good enough look to actually read it. I did discover she’d shaved, and I could easily make out her lower lips, but that was all I could manage without being, well, creepy.

We made it out of the driveway without too much trouble and found this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that turned out to be excellent. The only downside was even the “mild” green chile burned my mouth badly. I liked it, but I drank way too much water, with the associated diuretic effects. The margaritas were good, but I stopped at one since I had to drive.

“How about the hot springs again?” Natalie asked as we finished up.

“Sure. This afternoon or after dark?”

“Let me check the weather.” She opened her phone, did some scrolling and poking at the screen, and then frowned. “It’s supposed to be really cold this evening.”

“Ugh.”

“Yeah.”

“That won’t be good for being naked outside.”

“Why don’t we go this afternoon?” she said. “We can always get naked back at the cabin.”

I grinned. “Sounds good. Let’s do it.”

We stopped at the store long enough to pick up a little more food and some things for Natalie. Despite the snow, she said her skin was drying out so we got some lotion. I teased her about just using the snow itself, but she rolled her eyes at me. We also picked up more schnapps and hot chocolate mix.

The hot springs were prettier during the day, with the views of the pine forest surrounding it and the mountains in the distance. I also liked the steam rising off the water. The pools weren’t too crowded, which was nice, but we also didn’t really talk with anyone else there. When the wind picked up, we left, along with a lot of others.

We grabbed sandwiches on our way back to the cabin since neither of us felt like cooking. They were okay, but in hindsight, we should’ve gotten something hot. After we’d finished, Natalie did the minimal kitchen clean-up while I went to get some towels and take the hot tub cover off. I had just finished pouring the wine when she walked in.

Naked.

I did a double-take. She grinned in reply.

“No point in changing out here,” she said. “Besides, you’ve seen it all.”

“Still worth looking at,” I shot back. I looked her up and down and waggled my eyebrows.

That earned me a smile. “C’mon. Let’s get in the tub.”

She started doing just that, so I quickly shed my own clothes and climbed in. She made a point of staring at my dick and waggling her own eyebrows.

“You’ve seen it all,” I shot back.

She laughed and waited until I’d settled into the tub. Then she raised her wine glass.

“A toast,” she said.

I raised my glass and waited.

“To my brother,” she said, “who’s cool about getting naked.”

“And my sister,” I added. “For the same.”

We both drank.

“So...,” I asked, “are you getting naked much these days?”

“Not as much as I’d like.” She shrugged. “Mostly around my apartment.”

“No nudist resorts?”

“Just the beach in St. Martin. You?”

I shook my head. “Not nudist clubs.”

“So, what?”

“Swingers clubs.”

“Get out!” She laughed.

I grinned. “Nope. Cheryl and I went a couple of times.”

“Were they hot? Fun?”