Chapter 103

I stood up and so did Sara.

"Thanks, Jack."

She kissed me on the cheek and wrapped her arms around me. We were standing in my new kitchen hugging each other when I heard Jill's voice.

"My, my. What have we here?"

"Oh, Hi Jill. It's not what you think."

"Oh, really? And what do you think I think?"

"You probably think this is all innocent and I did something nice and Sara's thanking me. It's really a prelude to going in the bedroom and having mad, passionate sex."

"Oh. I see. Well, in that case, I guess Wanda and I can do our thing here in the kitchen. Have fun."

"Thank you, Dear. How was the match?"

"We whupped their asses. How about you?"

"I won all my events. The team lost one. We'll still make the championships."

"Good. Dinner in about an hour, so you'd better get going. Make sure you change the sheets when you're done."

I grabbed Sara's hand and started to pull her out of the kitchen.

"Come on, Sara. We don't have a whole lot of time for me to take you to heaven."

Sara and Wanda were looking at each other, at me, at Jill as if the two of us had flipped our lids. Sara finally found her voice.

"Jill, I..."

"It's OK, Sara. He's going to screw whoever he feels like. It doesn't do any good to worry about it. You don't have any diseases, do you?"

"I... I..."

"That's good. Don't forget, I get him all to myself next Wednesday."

"Jill, I really don't want Jack."

"I know that, Sara. That's why you've still got your eyes. And why he's still got his balls."

I took Jill in my arms and kissed her.

"I turned down a blow job this afternoon, too."

"Really. From Sara?"

"No. A friend of Mary's"

Jill looked puzzled and Sara took over.

"It was funny. Mary introduced Cindy to Jack and Cindy told him she'd never blown a captain before. Chris spit Coke all over me."

"What did Jack do?"

"He told her captains weren't any different from anyone else."

She gave me a kiss.

"Good boy."

"Have you talked to Mom since you got home?"

"No."

"She was wondering if you wanted to do something together for dinner."

"I'm going to show Wanda how to make spaghetti the right way. We can make enough for everybody just as easy as for the three of us. I may not want to eat with them, though."

"Too important to eat with the commoners?"

"Not at all. I may want to talk to Wanda without everyone there."

"OK. I'm going to go do some homework and check emails. Should I talk to Mom or do you want to?"

She glanced in Wanda's direction. "Would you mind?"

"Sure. No problem. Come on, Sara. We can neck on the way. See ya later, Wanda."

"Uhhm, yeah, sure, Jack."

Bozo followed us outside. I let him through the gate, giving Queenie her scratch as I did.

"Are you OK?"

"I think so. I can't believe Jill."

"Why?"

"She's so different than before. I thought she was going to get all pissed off."

"There's no reason for that, Sara."

"I know that. But that didn't stop her before."

"No, it didn't. But some things have changed since then. And I told her it wasn't OK for her to be a bitch until she had all the facts. And I think she loooves me, too."

"God, Jack. I wish I had what you two have."

"Well, I'd love to give you some kind of platitude about how there's somebody waiting for you out there. I'm as amazed by us as anybody. I can't even say it's what I wished for because I never imagined I could be as happy as I am before she ran into me. But I hope you find someone for you."

"Maybe I should stand in lines, waiting for some guy to knock me over."

"Just be ready for it when it happens. I almost threw it away when it happened to me."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a real problem with Jill being so young. And she was trying to compensate for it by doing what she thought was grown up. Thank God Mom pointed out some things to me before I did something stupid."

"Your Mom's pretty special."

"Oh, yeah. And she sucks a mean banana."

That comment got me a red face, a slap on the arm and a "Ja-ack!" And a smile.

I opened the kitchen door and held it for Sara, swatting her on the ass and making her jump as she went through. Mom was at the sink.

"Hi, Mom."

"Hi, Jackie. Is Jill home?"

"Yeah. I was sent down to tell you that she and Wanda are making spaghetti and they can make enough for everyone if you want."

"They aren't using Wanda's recipe, are they?"

"No, Jill's. Oh, I forgot. You missed out on Wanda's spaghetti. Maybe I can get her to cook it for you some time. Maybe next Wednesday when Jill and I are gone."

"That's OK, Jack. Tell Jill we'll be happy to have you all down here and see if there's anything I can make."

"She and Wanda are going to talk, so they'll probably eat at our place. I don't even know if I'll be welcome. I may end up delivering the spaghetti and then staying."

"Whatever you decide will be fine, Jack."

"OK. I'm going to go do some homework."

"Don't forget about me making something."

"I'm going to have to run a string between the two places and install a couple of tin cans."

"You don't need to do that. John ordered a phone. It will be in tomorrow afternoon."

"We don't need that. It's not that big a problem to come down here."

"I don't think he got it for you. I think he wants to be able to call Jill."

"Well, there goes our privacy."

"Come on, Jack. When's the last time he called over here?"