Chapter 4

“I really am afraid of the answer to this question, but have you two...”

“All the time, and it gets better every time,” I said to her.

“So the rings are for keeping other suiters at bay?” mom speculatively asked.

“And to show everyone our love for each other,” my Annie said.

“Are you being safe?” was her next question.

“No, we expect that I am already pregnant,” her youngest daughter responded glibly.

“Can I ask you a question, Mom?” I asked.

“Go ahead,” she said as our food arrived.

Our conversation stopped as Audrey gave everyone their food. She smiled at me.

“That kiss you gave me in the doorway, can you explain that to me, please?”

“Can’t a mother give her son a kiss, Hello?”

“That was a hot kiss with tongues, my dear, Paula!”

“To be honest, I jumped at the chance to come see you guys. Pete has thrown himself into his work so much lately, I doubt he realizes that I’m not at home right now!”

“How long are you here to stay?” Pam asked her, following up by taking a drink of her glass of milk.

“I guess as long as I want to,” she said, looking at me again. “Don’t any of you go to class?”

“We only need to be there for tests, they don’t take roll like when you went to KSU, Mom,” Polly said.

“I am only forty-three years old, young lady,” she said giving Polly some attitude of her own. “I’m staying at the Springhill Suites, it’s near the airport.”

“She wasn’t saying you were old, mother dear, just ... experienced. You are still as beautiful as I remember when I was very young. I was very proud that I had the hottest mom on the block. I must have been in 4^th grade at the time.”

“That’s very sweet of you to say, Paul.”

“I even beat up my best friend Jeff Miller who had said your boobs were fake. I told him they were not!”

“He started the fight, but I finished it. I haven’t seen or even spoken to him since then.”

“My goodness, I seem to remember you coming in the house looking beat up, but you told me you crashed your bike. You lied to me, Paul!”

“That was over ten years ago, but I remember it clear as day, Mom. Polly witnessed it, but she kept it to herself all these years.”

“I remember that still,” she said. “Jeff even said something rude about me, and my little brother defended my honor.”

“What did he say?” Annie asked her.

Polly seemed unwilling to say much more, breaking into a few tears.

“I’ll tell you what he said, he said that she was ‘flat as a board’ and would never get tits. That was more than I could take, and did a move I had seen on TV wrestling. I took a run, left my feet and put them in his chest knocking him straight to the ground, and I yelled, ‘Nobody talks to or about my big sister like that.’ I haven’t seen him since that day.”

I was really upset after telling that story, but my girl took my arm, saying, “Calm down, Paulie, it’s OK!”

She took a piece of bacon and put it in her mouth and beaconed me. I got the other end, and ate the whole thing, starting a really awesome kiss.

My mother slapped my back, and I turned to her and gave her the exact same kiss, without the bacon, until Annie slapped at my back.

Even though it wasn’t terribly warm anymore, we finished off our meals, and we left. I gave Audrey a nice tip, on our way out, including a quick kiss on her cheek.

We took ourselves and Mom back to our rooms, and I called Springhill Suites, asking to add the connecting room to Mom’s room, if available. It was, and they gladly would have it ready very quickly.