Chapter 10

Caitlin wasn't up when breakfast was served the next morning. "Served" is the wrong word, really. I slept late too, but when my body woke up "late" I was in California instead of back home, and I woke up just in time for breakfast in California. When I wandered into the kitchen, Hannah and Phil were just sitting down, and invited me to join them. I got a cup of coffee and a banana from the counter and sat down. Phil was reading the paper and commenting to no one in particular about something political.

"Caitlin's not up yet," said Hannah.

I wasn't surprised. Yesterday had been a long day for us both, and she'd had that glass of wine at the restaurant, and another when we got home, before going to bed. Then her mother had talked to her for who knows how long. We'd gotten home from The Hag's Cauldron around nine, and she hadn't come to talk to me until midnight.

"Let her sleep," I said. "I remember how precious mornings were during summer vacation."

"Me too," said Phil, laying his paper down. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to get dressed and get to the old salt mine."

Ten minutes later he came back into the kitchen and leaned down to kiss Hannah goodbye. I realized she was still in those pajamas, and couldn't help looking at the tips of her breasts. They were smoothly rounded, this morning.

Hannah was still eating cereal from a bowl. She had a piece of toast on a little plate next to her, and had nibbled at that. Finally, she looked up at me.

"I had sex with my husband last night," she said.

"Thank you for sharing," I replied, after I got my surprise under control.

"The whole time, all I could think of was you and Caitlin ... doing what we were doing."

"I'm sorry," I said. What else do you say in that situation?

"It was the best sex we've had in years," she moaned. "Does that make me a terrible mother?"

And what do you say to something like that?

"You want to know a secret?" I asked.

"What?"

"Do you know why men love going to weddings?"

"Men don't love going to weddings," she said.

"Yes they do," I insisted. "They fight it just to make sure that their woman makes them go."

"Why?"

"So that when the bride comes down the aisle, all dressed in white, looking pure and virginal, they can fantasize about what she's going to be doing that night, in her honeymoon bed."

"That's terrible!"

"It's normal. Men are biologically programmed to want to have sex with lots of women, and spread their seed far and wide. Now that we're all civilized, we can't do that in real life. So we do it in our fantasy lives."

"I still think it's terrible."

"Did you imagine she was you?" I asked. "Did you imagine Phil was me?"

She didn't answer, but the shade of red her face turned, told me what the answer would have been.

"You didn't do anything wrong," I said.

"It felt wrong."

"If I asked to take you to bed right now, would you do it?"

"Of course not. Especially not if you asked me like you just did."

"Your body says otherwise," I said. I pointed at the front of her PJs, which again showed spiked nipples underneath.

"Shit," she said, softly.

"They did that last night too," I said.

"Shit," she said again. "I thought I was over you."

"You are," I said. "That's just Mother Nature, fucking with your mind. And that's what fantasy is good for. It lets all that kind of emotion play out in ways that aren't harmful to real relationships. Don't worry about it."

"But what do I do the next time we make love?" she moaned.

"Make love," I said. "Go with the flow."

"How is it that you, who are not married, and have no girlfriend, know so much about all this?"

"Because all I have is fantasy," I said. Something deep inside me, some impish urge, made me say what I said next. "At least until recently."

I dropped my eyes to the front of her PJs again. She saw me do it. Her nipples must have been straining under that top.

"I had forgotten how you could do that," she said.

"Do what?"

"Make me crazy," she said. "And you probably made Caitlin crazy too. Now I don't know whether to believe she seduced you, or you seduced her."

"Trust me, I had no intention of moving our relationship in that direction," I said.

"Well you did. Or it did."

"I know and I think your plan for dealing with it makes sense. In fact, it would probably be better if I went on home, instead of hanging around her any longer. All that's going to do is put stress on everyone."

She looked sad, but nodded her head.

"You're probably right. I've got some errands to run. I'll go get dressed and do that, while you wake her up and say goodbye."

I blinked. "You know what will happen if she finds out we're alone in the house, and that you're out doing errands."

Her cheeks tinted pink again.

"Of course I do. But I also know what would happen if you don't. If you left without..." she swallowed, "um ... saying goodbye, she'd never forgive you."

"Thank you," I said, meaning it with all my heart.

"Give me half an hour," she said.

"It takes you half an hour to get dressed?" I teased.

She astonished me by bringing her hands up to cup her breasts, while the thumb and first finger of each hand squeezed a protruding nipple.

"I can get dressed in five minutes. But there's something else I need to do before I leave."

The imp was back.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Her hands were still mauling her breasts.

"You've done quite enough already, thank you. I have a vibrator, and it has fresh batteries in it. I'll be fine. And while we're on the subject, let me just say this. While I'm going to make my daughter expose herself to as many boys as possible, there will be no women in your life until this all gets worked out. You said fantasy is all you had. Well, it's all you have again. So make your goodbye to her memorable, because that memory is going to have to serve you for a long time."

I knew how to respond this time.

"Yes, Ma'am."

I was standing in the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Hannah was gone. When she had "taken care of matters," she had come out of her bedroom looking radiant and crisply asked, "How long do you need?"

I thought about it.

"Can you give us two or three hours?"

She paled, and her facade of confidence sagged.

"You can go for two or three hours?"

I grinned, but then let her off the hook. "Not the whole three hours. But I also don't do wham, bam, thank you ma'am, either. I think we'll start with a shower together, and then move on to -"

She held up a hand, palm facing me, and interrupted.

"Too much information, Bob! I don't need to know the details. Three hours it is. I'll go to the library or something."

"Thanks," I said.

Her color and confidence were back. She was a handsome woman. Caitlin only had her nose and lips, but they were both beautiful.

"No, thank you, " she said. "I meant what I said last night. I think this whole thing is crazy, and that hearts will be broken, but I will always be glad her first time was with you, as strange a thing as that is for a mother to say."

"You're welcome," I said, unable to think of any other response.

"I'm leaving now," she said.

"Okay," I responded.

"Is that all I get from my big brother, the last time he's going to see me for probably years?"

"Oh," I said, standing up. "Sorry."

My intent was just to hug her, but that little imp popped out of me again and, within the space of only one or two seconds, my intent changed radically.

I hugged her, yes, but I also kissed her. On the lips. And I grabbed her ass with both hands and squeezed her buns while I kissed her. She was so startled that her lips opened and my tongue darted between her teeth as my hands slid up her back to pull her hard against me.

And then she was kissing me back, with just as much passion. I couldn't help it. The animal in me came out and my hands slid around her sides toward her breasts.

Then she was pushing me away, panting, her eyes wild.

"No, that's enough," she said. "You save that for Caitlin."

"Fair enough," I said, grinning. "See you in my dreams."

"You save them for Caitlin too, you bastard."

"Yes, Ma'am," I said, still grinning.

Then that brash confidence sagged again.

"Be good, Bobby. She loves you."

"I will. Now go on, before I'm tempted to molest you again."

She surprised me by leaning in for another kiss. This one was very tender, almost reluctant. When she pulled back there were tears in her eyes.

"I should have fucked your balls off when I was fourteen," she whispered.

Then she turned, wiping her eyes, and walked out of the door.

Which brings us back to me, standing in the hallway, trying to decide how to proceed. I had three hours, which seemed like a long time. Until you considered it was the last three hours I'd have with her for the foreseeable future.

I lifted my right arm and sniffed my armpit.

Yeah, a shower was a good idea.

I left my clothes in the guest bedroom, and went to the bathroom. The house was probably forty or fifty years old. When they built them back then, one bathroom for three bedrooms was the norm. Maybe "primp" time, back in those days, was a little less lengthy. Then again, the bathroom in this house was huge, compared to the cubicles they put into houses these days. There was both a bathtub and a shower enclosure, and a long shelf on one wall that held three sinks. It had obviously been renovated, since the lower walls were all marble and the faucets were modern, but it appeared as though, in this family, everybody used the bathroom at the same time. Or could, anyway. Maybe when the house was built, families did that then, too. Used the bathroom at the same time, I mean. Privacy issues have changed radically since I was a kid. I know that.

Anyway, I turned on the water in the shower and got it adjusted to just a little warmer than body temperature.

Then I went to Kat's room and flipped the covers off of her sleeping body.

I was delighted to find she was naked.

There were a couple of bumps along the fantasy path I was trying to walk, at first. By that, I mean I had this idea of how it would go. I'd wake her up and whisk her off to the shower, where we would play and get excited and the passion would build until we didn't want to play any more, and then we'd get to the main event.

Perhaps I was a little too effusive in my waking of her. It's possible I should have coaxed more, and dragged less, on the way to the shower. Maybe my armpits weren't as offensive as I thought, and that lying down and waking her slowly with kisses might have worked better. I don't know.

What I did was shake the bed with my hands and yell, "Wake up, sleepy head! Time's a wastin'!"

And then, as she sat up, startled and confused, I pulled on her arm. I intended to pull her up to a standing position. What happened instead was that she more or less fell off the bed.

"What are you doing?" she wailed, still groggy.

"It's time for your shower," I said, gleefully.

"I took a shower last night!" she objected.

"It's time for your morning shower," I said. "With me," I added, sure that would snap her right out of it.

I think that's when she noticed I was naked. I'm pretty sure she already knew she was naked.

"Are you crazy?" she whispered.

"Not in the slightest," I said. "What I am is horny."

She perked up and looked at the window in her room. I knew she was trying to figure out what time it was.

"Breakfast is over. Your dad is gone to work. Your mother is out doing errands. We're all alone!" As I look back on it, I think I must have sounded like a little kid, announcing to his buddies that somebody forgot to lock the door to the candy store, and the proprietor was home in bed.

"So you want her to catch us again when she comes back home? Don't you dare screw this up for us, Uncle Bob."

I gave a few seconds to mourn the plan that obviously wasn't working out, and went to plan B.

"Your mother and I had a talk. She left on purpose, to give us time. She said she'd be gone three hours."