Chapter 7

Carly pulled up her bra and started to button her blouse back up. “You two are, I can’t even think of the word!”

“Sick, weird, maybe freaky,” Betty said.

“Loving, caring, and sensual,” I said kissing her neck again.

“I’m not real sure I should sleep over, either one of you could molest me in my sleep,” she said.

“Maybe both of us?” I suggested. “Are you on birth control, beautiful?”

“No,” she was quick to respond.

“What if I wore a condom?” I said.

“Why are you doing this, anyway? I’m your first cousin, nothing can come from us being sexual, except for the pleasure of it,”

“That’s a reason,” I said. “Are you saying something is wrong with sexual pleasure?”

Betty opened the door and we went through it together, as we saw mom.

“Didn’t you hear me yell?”

“Sorry, Mrs. Thornberry,” Carly said.

“That’s my fault, Mom ... We were all talking and didn’t want to stop,” I said.

“Well, come on down, I’m fixing spaghetti and meatballs, your father’s favorite. You girls need to freshen up a little,” she said pointing to her own lips.

She pulled me through the door, and we walked down to the kitchen. “Looking forward to another notch on your bedpost, Priest?”

“That’s not fair, mom. I love you and Betty; can I help it if the family tree has so many knots I want to drill out.”

“Interesting visual, Priest. She’s got nice big boobies, doesn’t she?”

“You could join us and find out for yourself, Jennifer?” I offered.

“Between you and your father, I’m OK,” she said.

“How about both of us ... at the same time?”

She looked at me and just laughed, then said, “Robert, come to dinner.”

I helped the young ladies by pulling their chairs out for them. Mom looked over at Dad who had simply sat himself down, looking at us all saying, “What?”

“I believe that your wife is using non-verbal cues to tell you that you are an ass, Sir?”

“Do you remember how you treated her when you first met, and you had decided ‘She’s the one?’” I said. That made my brothers roll their eyes and my younger sisters all giggle.

Before he could answer, I went on to say; “It is my suspicion that she wants that to return, making her feel wanted and desired.”

“She’s had seven kids, including my smart-ass son,” was his retort.

I wasn’t going to make any progress this way, so I smiled at her and we went on to eat the spaghetti with meatballs, with toasted sourdough bread and cold milk.

Because of our tiff, dinner was rather quiet.

“Christine,” I said to my next oldest sister, “Why don’t you have a boyfriend yet? You certainly are pretty enough to have more than one.”

“That’s enough of that kind of conversation, young man. I don’t see you with any girls, unless you are gay?”

“Robert, that is rude – apologize to your son, right now, or...”

“Or what? Are you going to defend this ‘Momma’s boy’ of yours?”

“Stop, both of you,” Betty said. “Priest is not gay, I’ve covertly watched him kissing a girl recently. Maybe he’s not ready to talk about her.”

“What’s her name, boy?”

“You don’t know her, and I promised her I would have her meet my family, but the way you are quarreling right now, tells me that you may never meet her.”

“What’s that mean, Priest?” he said.

“Maybe we will wait until she turns sixteen, get married, without your consent, and leave not only this town, but maybe the entire state of North Carolina.”

“Priest, you wouldn’t really do that, would you?” Betty said, joining in the fabricated girlfriend story.

“The only way I would entertain the possibility of not doing that, would be if a certain person, could come off his high horse, and become the loving and caring dad I grew up with. Then, and only then, maybe I would bring her by.”

“Am I really that bad?” he said.

“Dad, look at mom, and tell her that you love her ... and mean it!”

Everybody at the table had stopped eating, and watched, as Dad got up, walked over to her, and offered her his hand.

I saw emotion all over his face as he dropped to a knee and said, “Jennifer Christine Rose Thornberry. I am an ass!”

“We seem to agree on that,” she said putting her hand on his chin.

He began to laugh, and then did something none of us expected or had seen in very long time. He got up, got mom on her feet, and gave her a kiss that was quite amazing. It lasted a solid two minutes, then she broke away saying, “Our dinner is getting cold.”

She turned him to go sit down, slapping him on the butt, again making all of us laugh again.

In these goings on, I felt Carly’s hand on my leg, close to being on top of my rapidly hardening dick. She was eating with her other hand.

“Careful,” I quietly said to her.

Dad looked over to me and said, “I’m sorry son. I was being an ass.”

“That has been established already,” I said taking a bite of my toast. “Keep her happy and I’ll try not to get myself into trouble.”

“And, we’ll get to meet your girlfriend?” he said sheepishly.

“Eventually, but first things first, keep Jennifer happy, that will make us kids happy. Then we can get more of our cousins, aunts, and uncles to be nicer to us. I can get to know and appreciate your brothers, mom’s sisters, and all my pretty cousins, including the guys.”

“Sounds like a fair deal, Priest.”

Dinner was over, shortly after all that happened. I helped clean up, and Dad came over to me and said, “That was pretty ballsy of you, son. I appreciate it. The last thing I needed was to lose my family, just because I was having trouble at work.”