Chapter 28

I floated around on Monday. Everyone was my friend and nothing bothered me. I hoped Kim was having that kind of day. I made it to the cafeteria ahead of everyone. I wanted to see my baby. Mrs. Wetzel was kind enough to warm up my lunch for me. I thanked her and grabbed a seat at the squad table.

Kim came in with Fling and the rest weren’t far behind. We sat across from each other and tried not to look suspiciously happy but it was difficult. I don’t think either of us had said two words. I took a bite and looked up at Spot and caught her in the act of analyzing us. When our eyes met, the corners of her mouth turned up just a fraction and I thought, ‘she knows’ just like that. She didn’t say anything but I was certain that somehow, she knew that Kim and I had taken it to the next step. Nope. I decided. She might suspect but she didn’t know. I decided to press her on it and see if I could steer her away.

“What is it, Lisa?”

“I’m not sure. I had a hunch you two went somewhere different this weekend.”

“Riding. Kim took me riding.”

“I bet that’s it. It was something about Kim that made me think she’d been ... riding.”

I thought she might have said ‘ridden’ instead of riding but she didn’t. No one else picked up on it. Not even Kim. But Lisa had a solid hunch that Kim had been ridden. She knew. And she knew that I knew but she wouldn’t go there, at least not publicly. That was the end of it and they talked about the upcoming varsity competition for the rest of lunch. When the bell rang, I put my hand on Kim’s arm to slow her down and we left last, walking slowly to the door.

“Did you catch it?” I asked.

“Catch what?”

“Lisa has a hunch about us. She said she thought you had been riding but she almost said ridden instead.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“Maybe. I’ll bet you a nickel she brings it up to you privately. Maybe not, but be prepared.”

“Would it be so bad if she knew?”

“Yes. You have two more years here. You know and I know and we’re the only two that needs to. Please don’t let this cat out of the bag. Please!”

She started to say something twice and stopped. Then she said, “It’s important to you, isn’t it? That I have this unblemished reputation. It’s not about you. It’s about me.”

“Your honor is sacred to me. I think it’s worth protecting. Humor me, even if you don’t think so.”

“Spot’s pretty tight-lipped. But I won’t. Look at you. You sure don’t look like a doofus right now.”

“No?”

“No. I love that about you. You have that same look in your eye as when you confronted the boy who shall not be named. It’s your knight in shining armor look.”

“Uh huh. So, if she says something to you...”

“I’ll tell her we went horseback riding and then you taught me to play cards. I won’t tell her that you fucked me silly, you stud.”

“Shh.”

“Relax. It’s just us. I love you, Jack. What’s important to you is important to me. Not a word to Spot.” We started to leave the cafeteria when she put her hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Just so you know, you wore me out. I’m sore. My thighs, my hips, my pussy. They’re sore.”

“It’s from riding. You spent a lot of time in the saddle,” I said.

“You spent a lot of time in the saddle. I’m still floating. So good, Aquaman.”

“That’s how Mel knows. You’re floating and she sensed it.”

“I hear you. Look at you, so serious. Not a word. Our secret. Mmkay?” I nodded and we went to our next class, late again.

I got a ride home from Kim and we changed and met Mom in the gym. She stretched out while waiting for us. I hadn’t really noticed before but Mom was pretty flexible. She was twenty-eight years older than Kim and still pretty, fit and flexible. I didn’t think Dane would mind that she was a couple of years older than him. I shook my head before any weird thoughts could invade.

Kim joined us, wearing something more modest than she had in the past. It would certainly make it easier for me to focus.

“You and Dane getting serious, Mrs. Pierce?” she asked.

“It would seem that way. Do you like him?”

“I think we all do. He certainly seems interested in you. I think it’s fun that he would have you join us under the stars. He seems nice.”

Mom was quiet for a minute, then said, “Victor seemed nice. So did Ronnie.”

And that’s all she said. We had a great workout but it was definitely on Mom’s mind. She didn’t want to go oh for three with men and was afraid to get her hopes up that Dane was different. I thought he was. I thought he was exactly who he seemed to be and I liked him.

After our workout, I threw my bike in the back of Kim’s truck and we were going back to her place. Mom was walking up the steps and I couldn’t let it go. I ran across the driveway and up the steps, catching her before she went in.

“Don’t project, Mom. He’s not anybody else but Dane. Enjoy him for who he is.”

“Let my guard down. I thought I had but it can pop up pretty easily. You like him, don’t you?”

“I really do. Let your guard down until he gives you reason to put it up. Has he tried to ... no. That’s none of my business.”

“You were going to ask if he’s tried to get me into bed, weren’t you?” I put my best stone face on. “No. He’s a gentleman. He knows I’ve been married.”

“And you know all the tricks,” I said before I’d given it any thought.

“All of them. Did you know...”

“Nanana,” I said with my hands over my ears as I ran down the steps to Kim’s truck. Mom laughed.

We drove to Kim’s house and she parked her truck. I looked around and realized just how private the entrance to the McTighe’s house was. If I was serious about Kim’s reputation, I needed to be serious. It was about more than us getting caught and getting in trouble. I realized that Sally’s reputation was safe with me, except that Kim knew we had done stuff. She didn’t know exactly what, though. That would have to do.

We were barely in the front door when Kim put me in a first-class lip lock. Her hands flew over my back and up to my shoulders and I wasn’t about to slow her down. We kissed until we were both out of breath.

“I love you, Jack. You treat me right.”

“I love you, too. You treat me right, too.”

“I’m going to treat you right now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Come on,” she said and dragged me back to her room. She turned her desk chair around and when she looked back at me, she had a wicked smile. “Pants off. Sit down.”

Who was I to argue? She was in a hurry, pulling my pants off over my shoes. She gave me a gentle push and I sat bare-assed on her chair. She dropped to the floor in front of me and pushed my legs apart.

“Your wiener is soft.”

“You still have your clothes on.” She took my soft wiener in her hands and my soft wiener started its transformation into a hard dick. “That feels nice. Are you going to get undressed?”

“No. When I said I was sore from yesterday I wasn’t kidding. But you treated me so right, that I’m going to treat you right, right now,” she said and sucked the head of my dick into her mouth.

She held the head of it with her lips and let her tongue swirl around the top. I could feel the roughness of her tongue as she circled, then flicked the top. She cupped my balls with one hand and wrapped the other around my shaft. She eased back until my dick popped out with a little pop sound.

“I’m going to try to get as much of you in my mouth as I can. I’ve never tried this before and I don’t know how much I can do but I’m going to try. And then, when you cum, I’m going to try to suck you dry. It’s always been too much but I’m going to try. I want to give you my best.”

“I love you, Baby. I haven’t exactly felt short changed in the past you know.”

“I know. But I want to try this,” she said and put her lips back on my dick.

She made love to my dick. Her tongue was amazing, sliding around the head, pressing flat, then flicking, almost the same way I’d treat her clit. She pushed her lips down my shaft and I could feel the roof of her mouth against me and her tongue was flat against my underside. She pushed down and gagged a little. Then caught her breath and pushed down some more. I had no sensation in any other part of my body. I was my dick. I felt her thumb and forefinger encircle the base of my cock and squeeze and she used her grip to try to pull more of me into her mouth. I’d read about women that could relax their throat enough to let a dick slip past their soft palate. I didn’t think that was Kim.

I looked down at my beautiful baby and brushed some hair off her face. She was totally given to this and I could tell that it took a lot of effort. She found out the limit of how deep she could go and there were still a few inches of my dick not in her mouth. She abandoned that idea and coupled her hand to her mouth and began to bob up and down. At the top of each stroke, she ran her tongue over me and then pushed down again.

“That feels wonderful, Baby. I’m going to cum soon. Just warning you.”

She tightened her grip on my dick and I saw her cheeks suck in and that was all I could take.

“Cumming, Baby, agh.” I tried not to thrust up at her and she must have realized that because she gave me that sensation with her hand. I began to spurt and she began to swallow, sucking hard on me. She lifted up so that only the head of my dick was in her mouth. She continued to stroke me with her hand but her tongue flicked back and forth underneath the head. She sucked me dry, and then she continued to suck, just to make sure.

“That’s all there is, I think. Oh, my gosh, Baby. Wow.”

“Good?”

“There has to be a better word. You were amazing.”

“Good. Be right back.” She released me and ran to the bathroom. I heard her swish and get a drink, then swish again and I didn’t blame her.

“That felt really good.”

“Good. Tell me what was best so I can do better.”

“That seems like a lot more work for you than when I go down on you. Do you want me to...?”

“No. I’m really sore. I need a day off. Jack, I might need a week off. You really, really got me good.” I had to smile about that.

“It all felt good but when you had just the head in your mouth and were sucking hard. That felt really good. The sucking. And then your tongue. That little back and forth flicking thing you did. That was crazy.”

“What about when I had as much of you in my mouth as I could? Was that good?”

“It was but it seemed really hard for you. I didn’t like that it was difficult for you to do that and I don’t think it should be like that. When your hand and mouth were, like, connected, that was pretty nice.”

“So having my lips way down on your dick wasn’t that big of a deal?”

“It was nice. Don’t get me wrong. But I felt pretty good without you having to gag yourself.”

“Okay. That’s good because that was really hard to do. I swallowed it all and you, sir, make a lot, just so you know.”

I laughed a little. “I guess I really want to make babies. You know what though? I don’t think you swallowing was all that important to how I felt. I think that you kept sucking the whole time was. That was really nice. Really nice.”

“I think the two are connected. It would be hard to keep sucking if I weren’t swallowing. Maybe that’s the deal. I don’t mind. You don’t taste bad or anything. Just different. I like to please you.”

“I’m pretty pleased. Are you sure?”

“No. Just enjoy, for once. You’re so funny.”

“I’m appreciative. I still can’t believe I’m dating you.”

“Jack, we have about eight hundred students and half of them are male. If we stopped dating tomorrow, you would be eligible bachelor number one at Porter.”

“Right.”

“I am right. Have you noticed, there’s three or four new couples where the girl is older than the guy? We broke the invisible barrier but now that it’s gone, it’s gone for good. You don’t have to believe me. I don’t want to give you any ideas.”

“I have an idea.”

“Great.”

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

“Uh huh. Why?”

“So, you aren’t so sore so I can...”

“Shhh. You’re so bad. Stand up,” she said and we hugged.

“Not a lot of skin on skin here,” I complained.

“Deal with it. I don’t want to get wound up.”

“Winding you up is in my top five fun things to do. You’re depriving me.”

“After that?”

“Oh, yeah. Okay. You know what? Third base can be better than home sometimes. You were one hundred percent focused on me, and just giving me pleasure. That’s kind of a big deal.”

“It is a big deal. You do that for me a lot more than I do it for you.”

“Yeah, well, you can cum about twenty times an hour too, so there’s that.”

“Twenty, huh.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do. Not fair, huh? Maybe we should have a day set aside where I just try to give Jack Pierce a record number of orgasms. That would be the goal. No. A goal without a number is a vision, right. We should set a goal. Yesterday, you came six times. I counted. Was that the most in one day?”

“Definitely. And, honestly, I was pretty worn out.”

“We should shoot for ten. Ten in one day.”

“Ten. That’s a lot. I think that would kill me.”

“You got a better way to go?”

She decided to try to list all the different things she would do to get me to have ten orgasms in one day and by the time she was half way through the list I was half hard again. She started gently stroking me as she tried to figure out the rest of the list. By then I was too wound up to do anything but stand there until she pushed me back into the chair and began to give me a hand job in earnest. She grabbed a bottle of baby oil from her dresser and warmed it up with her hands and started to stroke me. That felt pretty nice.

“You’re still dressed, Baby. I’m going to get it all over you.”

“It washes out. Give me. I want to watch this time. I enjoy that.” She stroked me some more and I was getting close. “You like to thrust when you cum, don’t you? Do it. You’re close. I’m not going to let go.”

Her hands and the oil had become warm and she had found the perfect grip. As I got close, my butt started to clench and I put my hands on the chair and began to thrust up. Knowing it was her hands and that I wasn’t going to hurt her, I really let loose. In the middle of it, I was holding myself up with my hands on the chair and my feet on the ground, thrusting for the ceiling. It felt great and, as promised, she never let go.

I crashed down onto the chair and looked at her. “Oh, Baby. It’s everywhere.” It was all over her hands and face and the front of her blouse and she had this ridiculous grin on her face.

“Ten is a nice round number. We’ll go for ten, but not today. You know how you said giving me an orgasm was your favorite thing to do? I get it.”

“Okay,” I said with an ear-to-ear grin. “If you get to do it so do I. Different day but same idea.”

“You’re going to give me ten orgasms in one day?”

“No. I think that was yesterday. Ten for me is pretty outrageous. What would be outrageous for you? Forty? Fifty?”

“Ha ha. Try, maybe twelve. That’s probably too many but, what the heck. I’m not going to be terribly disappointed if you can only give me ten,” she said, laughing.

“Okay. Not a competition and we can lose sight of the real goal, right? The goal is to give each other as much pleasure as possible in one day but we’re sort of measuring it with orgasms. Does that sound right?” She nodded. “Then if we’re going to do it, we should really do it. Let’s do some research. A lot of the stuff I’ve tried with you that I liked is because Cheryl at Bad Kitty told me. She’s like a goldmine of information. Let me go over there and invite her to dinner or something, you know, pay her for her time somehow, and tell her what we want to do.”

“That’s crazy,” she said but I could tell she was thinking about it. “We could do that. Both of us. I want to hear it first hand and I’m not sure how I like the idea of you getting sex advice from some woman at a sex shop. Please tell me she’s a homely, sixty-year-old woman.”

“No, she not. She’s young and she’s hot. I get it though. I’ve been there a couple of times when she’s working and it’s best early on a weeknight or afternoon even, because they aren’t as busy.”

“Alright. What’s the benefit of this? What difference does it make if my number is one or twenty?”

“This was your idea. I’m good if I just cum five or six times a day.”

“Okay, funny guy. Is there a lasting value or what?”

“We’re new to this, right? We’re still finding out new stuff. You learned stuff today and so did I. So, if we test our limits, we know we’re going to have to use variety and we learn a bunch. I didn’t believe Cheryl when she said putting my finger in your butt would get you off.”

“Yeah. That was pretty crazy. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.”

“You came, though, right?”

“On a scale of one to ten, that was a thirteen. Yeah. I came, and that was after a whole bunch of other times.”

“So, we learn. Plus, we get to really enjoy giving each other pleasure. I can’t wait.”

“Honestly, how many times do you think you could cum in one day, Jack?”

“I don’t know. It was six yesterday and I was spent but then I did a lot of work to help you cum too. Maybe eight. Maybe. That sounds like a lot. I don’t know. No. I didn’t do any work to help you cum. It was not work. It was play but it still took effort but it was in no way work.”

“Goals are good. I like ten,” she said.

“Okay, whatever we end up with for goals, let’s admit right now that we don’t know enough to get the maximum out of our time and effort. We need an expert. A coach. Cheryl has steered me right in the past.”

“Fine. See if she wants to meet us for Sunday brunch or something. This is so weird.” She was quiet for a moment or two. “You’re usually quiet when you cum. You were really loud this time.”

“I was?”

“You were too busy to notice, but yeah, you were loud. You kind of growled. I like that. I like to make you happy. We agree. Our favorite pastime is giving each other pleasure. If I have to go get advice from some hot chick at the sex shop, I guess I’m willing to pay that price.”

“You don’t like that, do you. She’s not a prostitute. She’s a cashier. But if you talk to a cashier at a hardware store, you expect them to know about tools.”

“That’s true, I guess. You like her,” Kim said.

“I do. She has helped me give the woman I love pleasure without expecting anything back in return. That’s not entirely true. She wanted feedback and I gave her feedback. If I were buying an engagement ring for you, I’d want help from the sales lady at the jewelry store.” It got real quiet, real fast. “I meant to say ‘when’. When I buy an engagement ring for you, not if.”

We looked at each other for a few minutes and the humor was gone. We’d been having fun and joking but what I’d just said was serious. I hadn’t meant for it to change the mood but it did. It really did. She hugged me and I held her. When we stepped back from each other, we continued to hold hands - just fingertips.

“I fully intend to do that. If I told someone that, they would think it’s like a five-year-old saying he’s going to grow up to be a fireman. I’m not five.”

“I believe you. When you ask, I intend to say yes.”

“I need to figure out how to make that real.”

“It’s already real to me.”

We kissed. We kissed long and hard and hungrily but not so much in a sexual way. When we broke the kiss, Kim was crying and so was I and neither of us really knew why. Happy, I guess. Neither of us wanted to cry so we hugged for a while and then I rode my bike home. I have a nice bike but it’s a bike. I’d had a couple of ten speeds but my Schwinn Continental was my favorite. Somehow, it just seemed faster than the others. I was talking about marriage and riding my favorite bike and I felt like I may as well say I was going to be a fireman. My favorite bike didn’t seem so special. It sucked.

When I got home, Hector was working in the back yard and I went out to talk to him for a few minutes. Riding my bike had made me feel too much like a little kid and I’d had an idea about growing up. He listened and helped me figure it out. We did some math together and made a plan. I went back inside and dinner was ready. We sat down to eat.

“Something is on your mind, Buddy.”

“I’m going to get a job this summer.”

“You are? Any particular reason? You don’t need to. You have chores to keep you busy and if you need something, just say so. You do pretty well at school. That’s your job.”

“Thanks, Mom. Really. But I need to work for this.” Sometimes I think about stuff for hours, days or even months, but I had thought this through on the short ride from Kim’s. It was obvious.

“Alright. Now you have my interest. What’s the story?”

“I don’t have transportation so that kind of limits it. I’m going to work for Hector for the summer. He’s seen me do chores and knows I’m a good worker. He said he’d start me at four dollars an hour and that’s more than minimum wage but he’ll raise it to five after he’s seen me work for two weeks.”

“Okay. Keep going.”

“By the end of the summer, I should have around two thousand dollars.”

“How much do you have from what Franklin gave you?”

“Almost eight thousand.”

“And that’s not enough for now?”

“It’s more than enough, Mom, but what I want to buy, I have to work for. I can’t use gift money. It wouldn’t be right.”

By that point, she had stopped eating entirely. “You need two thousand dollars to buy something you have to work for. Is that right?”

“Basically. I’m not sure if two thousand is enough but I think so.”

“Okay. And what is it that you’re going to buy with these two thousand dollars?”

“First, is it okay if I work for Hector this summer?”

“In principle. I don’t see why not. I think it will be good experience for you. We both know you’re a good worker and Hector has seen you do chores enough to hire you. I’d rather have you work for Hector doing landscaping than Wash putting up roofs. What are you saving up for?”

“A ring for Kim.”

That got her attention. “What kind of ring?”

“Diamond.”

“Jack, you’re fifteen. You’re fifteen. I get used to the idea that you’re thinking in a grownup fashion and then you raise the bar. Just slow down.” She was a bit steamed.

“I know how old I am. If I’ve done the math right, I’ll work over four hundred hours for Hector. Landscaping doesn’t take a lot of brain power. I’ll have four hundred hours to think about what I’m going to spend that money on. I already know but I knew you would say something like, ‘you’re only fifteen’ so I’m going to be thinking about it for four hundred hours.” She looked like she was ready to cry.

“Do I sound like a little kid to you, Mom?”

“No, Jack, you don’t. And that’s what’s scary. Does Kim know you’re going to do this?”

“No. She knows that I love her and that I intend to marry her when I’m old enough. Franklin and Karen are working to pay their bills. Did you know he isn’t using any inheritance money?”

“He’s not?”

“Nope. I hope I didn’t blow some secret. They have a plan to live solely off their income for two or three years before touching it. He could have bought his car for cash but he’s making payments.”

“Payments. Oh, my gosh. He would have had to apply for a loan and get a credit check. I’d love to have seen the expression on the banker’s face when he applied for a car loan and they got his credit score. So, this is why you need to work for the money?”

“Something like that. I don’t want to think or feel like Kim is free or a gift or something. I can’t give Kim a ring I bought with inheritance money. It wouldn’t express what I feel. I can’t give her a Cracker Jack ring. A ring I give her has to mean something and the way I can show that is with a few blisters. I don’t mind.”

“Sometimes I wish you sounded more like your age. Honey, you are growing up too fast. Make me feel better about this.”

“Okay. If I can.” I took a deep breath and tried to sound as old as I needed to be convincing. Neither of us were eating because this was too important and Mom was taking me seriously. “I can’t work and do good at school at the same time. That leaves the summer. I’ll work ten weeks this summer and have two weeks for vacation. A year from now, Kim will be seventeen and I’ll be sixteen and have a car. When she turns seventeen, I’ll ask her to marry me officially. We won’t set a date but we’ll agree to wait until I’m eighteen. If I graduate in three, it means we’ll both be college freshmen someplace. I’ll have income from my trust fund then and we could get married, go to college and live on the trust. I won’t marry her until I can afford to. I would rather have it be from money I earn, like Franklin, but I’m okay if we live off my trust for a while. That’s my thoughts.”

“I hate it when you think things through like this. I really do. I shouldn’t but I do. That’s actually not a bad plan, Jack.”

“I heard Dane the other night. We talked about it. People want what Kim and I have. I want what Kim and I have. It’s crazy that Sally and I could get so serious so quickly but what that showed me was that I can. I talked to Mr. McTighe. They’re not going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere, especially now with Dane.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, Mom. What kind of a day did you have with him, boating up to McClellanville and then towing a boat in and eating with strangers? I saw how you looked at him while he was working the mechanical bull. Mom, he looks at you the same way.”

“To hear you talk, we should be engaged already,” she said as a joke but saw that I didn’t think of it as a joke.

“You’re the one who told me love was a decision. I didn’t make that up.”

“Dammit, Jack. Why do you have to remember everything? You do. I wish I had half the memory you do.”

“Sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse. Do you like him?” She nodded. “Could you love him?” She nodded again only more slowly. “What would have to happen to change that? This seems like a familiar conversation.”

“One I should have had thirty years ago.”

“I might not be here if you had.”

“You and Franklin are the best things to come from Victor.”

“If I understand it right, you knew he was a jerk by the time Franklin was born. Thanks for sticking it out, Mom. It’s still light outside. I need to run an errand.”

“Fine. Give me a chance to breathe. Be careful.”

“Hey, Mom,” I hollered before I went out. “No one knows all this but you.”

“Sealed lips, Buddy.”

I biked the back way through side streets I’d found in the golf cart to get out to Savannah Highway. It was still light outside. I loved it when the days were starting to get longer. I passed the used bookstore and parked in the alley beside Bad Kitty. I willed my mustache to grow a little. You know, maybe a five o’clock shadow at least and then walked in like I belonged there. I didn’t see Cheryl and was about to leave when one of the people I knew worked there stopped me. “If you’re looking for Cheryl, she’s off today. Be in tomorrow at four.”

I thanked him and pedaled back to the used book store. I went to a row I had visited only once before and found copies of Hondo and The Quick and the Dead by Louis L’Amour, The Searchers by Alan LeMay and Hombre by Elmore Leonard. In for a penny, in for a pound, Mom always said. In the science fiction aisle, I found Dune Messiah, the second book by Frank Herbert. I also found a big book on landscape design that I thought might be helpful if I wanted to do any more than mowing and edging for Hector. That was a pretty good haul and would keep me busy for a while. Not bad for my remaining credits and four dollars and for the first time, the value of money became real. That was one hour of summer work for Hector.

When I got home, I scrounged through my stuff for old paperbacks that I’d already read. As I stacked them, I made sure I’d noted them in my journal. I had a bunch. I looked through them and found I had somewhere around eighteen dollars’ worth of books to trade in. I started laughing. I had nearly eight thousand in an envelope in my top drawer but finding eighteen dollars’ worth of used books was somehow satisfying.

On the ride in the next day, Harpo said, “I brought my grades up in science and math,” sort of out of the blue.

“So did I,” Phillips added, obviously proud of his accomplishment and anxious to share. “Not science and math. They were already good. History and Spanish. I brought them both up and I’m doing extra credit. I can probably get an A in both of them.”

“Both of you guys upping your game?” I asked, happy and a little surprised.

“I joined the drama club, too,” Harpo said.

“Harpo, what if they give you a speaking part?” I asked and we all laughed. “Good. If you guys get straight A’s it won’t be because of luck.”

“No. I kind of like that,” Phillips said.