Chapter 17: Dinner for a Horde

I felt Sherrie stir, then I felt her roll away from me. "I'm awake," I said softly.

"You're not mad are you?" she whispered.

I rolled over and kissed her on the cheek. "No, that was nice, Sherrie."

She smiled. "I've wanted to play pretend with Ann for a long time; the one time I tried... she got really upset."

"I'm not Ann and I'm not upset."

"It was under your roof."

"It was," I agreed. "Sherrie, sometimes we try to do things with the best of intentions. Sometimes those things work out, other times they don't." I chuckled. "At least we started out from under the roof.

"I didn't let you stay here because I wanted to have sex with you, but I'm not going to kick you out because we did. I wanted to help you, that's all."

"You have. Laura..." She looked at me. "I know there are others you like. I don't want to take that away from you. I have all these dreams and fantasies about making love. I don't know how to explain it."

"If you want me to share in your dreams, I will. And yes, there are others. At least for the foreseeable future."

The alarm went off. We both rolled our eyes; then we shared a laugh. I shut the alarm off and we got up, and kissed for a couple of minutes. Sherrie went to get ready for school, I went to make sure Susan was up and then take my shower.

When I went out to swim later, the morning was already warm. I swam a dozen laps, letting my mind drift. Twice in a week women had pretended to be men, to make love to me. What did that say about myself? I'd enjoyed it both times; true it was a milder form of sex, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing. I'd hate to get jaded, where I had to have super orgasms with someone just to notice them at all.

That, and there were times I would think about Raul and what it would be like to be with a man again. It was, I thought, confusing.

I took another shower. I decided to wear a summer dress in the evening. The dress was dark, but the thin cotton fabric would breathe well. In the meantime, I put on shorts and a loose tank-top shirt. I'd gotten pretty irregular about whether or not I wore a bra: I decided not to bother today.

Sherrie left, I took Susan to school. I was sitting at the computer about 8:30, when the phone rang. "Sergeant Miller, DPS, Mrs. Hunt. We have the report ready." He chuckled, "I heard something about cookies."

"When would be a good time for a friend with cookies to arrive?" I asked.

"Three; you'd get to make two shifts happy."

"A little after three it will be. Thanks, thanks a lot."

"For cookies, we go the extra mile!"

He hung up and I wandered into the kitchen, to make sure I had everything I needed. Since I did, I figured now would be as good a time as any to start making them. I made four different kinds, quite a few more than I would normally make, putting aside some for dinner.

I was down to the put-another-couple-of-trays-in-the- oven-every-twelve-minutes stage when the phone rang again. I hate people who put their phone on speaker, but this time I did, so I could deal with the baking.

"Hi, I'm Louise Carter, Nancy Howland gave me your name. I run the Tonto Bridge Cheerleading camp."

"Laura Alban Hunt," I told her. "You'll have to excuse me, I'm baking cookies."

"I can call back, if you'd like."

"Oh, it's fine. If I'm talking, it'll give me an incentive not to sample the goods."

She laughed. "Nancy said you might be interested in working something out, that you might be available to work full time during the summer for us."

"I would. You understand, though, that I wasn't a cheerleader?"

"People who can jump up and down while screaming and shouting aren't hard to find," she said dryly. "People that can put a little rhythm into it, keeping in time with the music -- that's a little harder, but not that much harder. Nancy says she's never met anyone better at working out problems with girls -- and that is priceless."

She chuckled. "You'd be surprised how much of my time that sucks up. There's a reason schools have a vice principal to deal with discipline matters."

"I'd be willing to do that or do anything else that you might need."

"We run three two-week sessions, starting the last week of June, going to the first week of August. Would you be available?"

"Yes; if need be I can find something for my daughter to do."

"Nancy said that your daughter is quite capable, but hasn't been exposed to a lot of the various opportunities in Cheer. She wouldn't be the only girl who attends all three sessions."

"That would be nice." I looked outside at the pool. I could see the air shimmering. "Is the camp in the mountains?"

"Yes, northwest of Payson. Nancy said it might be a matter of concern to you that one of the sessions, the last, is co-ed."

"Some," I told her, "but if I'm there to hover, I wouldn't have a problem."

She chuckled again. "How about we get together for lunch? We could talk about what would be involved."

"That's fine; any day except for Saturday, my slate is clean."

"Monday?" she asked.

"That's fine. When and where?"

"I teach at Saguaro Middle School. I have my prep period and lunch back to back. How about you come to the office Monday a little after 11:30 and we'll go from there?"

I got directions from her, told her I'd be there.

Cookie making came to an end. I'm happy to report that I didn't sample too many. I spent some time cleaning in the kitchen, more time in the living room and family room, more time in the bathrooms.

Around one the phone rang again; good, I thought. I was ready for a break. I picked up and it was Linda.

"I went to lunch today with my boss, he's a CPA," she told me. "I don't know what to say, Laura, except that I'm sorry. You were right. He told me of some of the lawsuits he's heard about -- they were pretty nasty. I want to apologize to you."

"You should apologize to the Wheelers." I didn't suggest Jamie should apologize; she'd beaten Linda to it.

"I don't think they'd talk to me."

"Oh, you'd be surprised there," I told her. "I found I had some things in common with Jay Wheeler and Frank Courdes; they mentioned you and I have even more in common with their wives. Susan visited with June, Sylvia and Toni a bit yesterday evening. Susan and June have a lot in common, although June swims for a team instead of being in Cheer."

"Oh," Linda said softly.

"Another thing. I know it's going to be expensive to drop this."

"Seven thousand dollars," Linda said bitterly, "A quarter of Jamie's college fund."

I hope, I thought, that you aren't relying on getting money in lieu of sympathy from me.

"You have a contingency arrangement with your attorney, right?"

"Yes, if it had gone to trial, I'd not have had to pay, win or lose."

"Would you consider cheating that scum-sucking bastard lawyer of yours?"

For a second Linda was quiet, and then she laughed. "I guess he was never my friend, was he?"

"Lawyers have lawyers for friends," I told her. "I know this won't be easy, but if you were to call Jay or Karen Wheeler, apologize, then fall on your sword a couple of times after you tell them you're dropping the suit -- you might find them agreeing to pay Jamie's medical expenses. It probably isn't a lot, but it would be something. And it would come outside the legal channels; you wouldn't be making any of the lawyers rich."

"For nearly eight hundred dollars, I can do that. I don't know what to say, Laura. I'm sorry."

"That works for me, Linda."

"Do you think it would help if Jamie apologized? I know she would."

"I think that should be up to her. Tell her what's going on; let her make up her own mind about what she wants to do. A forced apology isn't worth much."

"She's been better about this than I have, practically from the start. June popped her in the nose and then her friends dropped her like a rock. Jamie realized that she was wrong, and went out of her way to fix it."

"She's a fine girl, I like her a lot."

"Thanks, Laura. I need to get back to work."

She hung up and I briefly considered inviting her and Jamie to dinner, and then decided that some things are best left to later. No need to push when it came to reconciling, either.

Sherrie came back from school, noticed the cookies in the kitchen when she was pouring her glass of tea. "Does this mean that form is in?"

"It surely does," I told her. "Feel up to helping me deliver these?"

"Sure!" she replied enthusiastically.

"I was going to leave a little before three," I told her.

"I need to hit the books, then."

She retired to her room, while I spent a while in the shower again, changed to jeans, a blouse with a bra. Yeah, the young man had been staring at Sherrie's breasts, not mine, but you never know. Better, I thought, not to titillate the beasts. I couldn't help wondering if Sherrie's enthusiasm was because of certain cute police officer, behind the desk.

The afternoon was much warmer than it had been the last few days; I was glad the car had air conditioning.

The officers were happy to see us, particularly the young officer who spent a lot of time looking at Sherrie. I thanked them for their help; they thanked me for the cookies. At the end, just before we left, I noticed Sherrie smiling at the young officer.

We picked up Susan from school. We drove home and all of us shed clothes in the family room and jumped into the pool.

I ended up floating on my back, lightly resting my shoulders on the pool steps, Susan on one side, Sherrie on the other. Not quite touching, but close.

"I'm sorry I borrowed your little plastic thing without asking, Susan," Sherrie said after a few minutes.

Susan giggled. "I hope it felt nice."

"It did," I replied. I saw Susan turn her head and look at me.

"I took it in the shower with me this morning; afterwards, I washed it off and put it back. It's was interesting," Sherrie said.

"I didn't mind you watching last night," Susan told her.

"Thanks. I don't know why I like just watching -- but I get really excited when I do."

"I imagine," Susan said, then she giggled and blushed. We all laughed.

I held up my hand and saw my wrinkled fingers. "I'm wrinkling up, I'm going to get out. I need to get started on dinner."

I got up, gathered my clothes and headed for my room.

I realized Sherrie was right behind me. I turned, and without a word she came into my arms, kissing me hard. I kissed back; then Sherrie ran her hand, palm down, across my stomach, over my abdomen to press down on my clit. As her fingers sought entrance, I pushed my abdomen forward to meet her probing.

"You're really dry!" Sherrie said after a second.

"You'd think after spending a half hour soaking in the pool," I muttered, a little exasperated myself, "that you'd get wetter not dryer." Still, Sherrie was patient and persistent and I was in the mood, a winning combination.

"I really need to get started on dinner," I murmured, pressing my body against hers later.

"Thank you for being so patient with me."

I kissed her lightly. "Girl, I'm the one in need of patience."

"You?" Sherrie asked, surprised.

"Me," I sighed. "God, I like this. It seems like I'm living out the most vivid fantasies I had when I was fifteen or sixteen." I bounced my belly against hers. "Although I didn't remember them being this vivid."

Sherrie smiled at me.

"I keep thinking it has to be wrong, to feel this good," I went on. "Everything I've ever heard until this month says that what I'm doing is evil and depraved. That I have to be taking advantage of you younger girls." I looked her in the eye. "I swear, so far I've never gone looking for anyone. I've never put my eye on a girl, talked to her in a way that would sway what she thinks about me, to change a no or a maybe to a yes. I've never pushed, much less taken advantage of someone."

Sherrie looked at me steadily for a moment, and then shook her head. "You can't feel it I suppose."

"Feel what?"

"You glow, Laura; I don't know if that's the right word for it, but it's how I think of it. You shine on the people around you and we soak it up through our skin and we're better people for it. It's almost enough to make me believe in saints; you're a daily miracle in the lives of the people you touch. I feel like I'm greedy, cutting in at the head of the line, taking the time you might spend with someone else.

"I loved Ann, I cry every day that she's gone. You..." She smiled wanly. "I cherish every minute I have with you."

"I can't be your whole life," I cautioned her, trying to be honest.

Sherrie nodded. "I know and I don't want to be your whole life, either. For one thing, I think I'd burst after a while; just swell up with your energy and burst. No, you're so special, beyond special." She giggled. "And that police officer looked cute. My, wouldn't that surprise everyone?" She kissed me lightly. "Thanks. Thanks for everything." She smiled, turned and left.

I decided that I absolutely had to have another shower, so I took as hasty a shower as I ever had, then started preparations for dinner. I was busily chopping lettuce, dicing tomatoes, some cheddar cheese; I love to cook and it had been a long time since I'd had to cook for this many. Sherrie came to help after a bit, then Susan was done with her homework and she too lent a hand.

Around a quarter to five the phone rang, just as the doorbell jangled. Susan ran to the phone, I went to the door. The trio of girls and their mothers were there. Karen smiled. "I realize you just have to be busy, so I thought Gus and I would offer to lend a hand. Our daughters, alas, just want to swim around in circles."