Chapter 8

The moment I opened the door my life changed and time stood still, not that it hadn't changed a lot already. When I opened the door I was looking directly into the darkest pair of blue eyes I'd ever seen. Midnight blue as my late wife would say.

"I'm Rebecca Burns, Erin's mother. Are you Robert Jacobs?" a very pleasant voice asked. I was rooted in place staring at those captivating midnight blue eyes. "Well?"

"Uh yes, uh of course, um I'm Robert Jacobs," I managed to get out. My teeth were in the way of my tongue and I was having trouble speaking.

"You're staring Mr. Jacobs," Becky said in that very pleasant voice.

"Yes, um sorry, I guess it's um your eyes," I managed to get out. God those eyes were fabulous.

"I've brought a bottle of chilled merlot for us to share while we talk. I hate room temperature wine," Becky said. I hated room temperature wine too and liked everything chilled.

"Yes, uh thank you," I stammered. Christ I can't even talk. What the hell was the matter with me?

"Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" Becky asked. She had a kind of bemused smile on her lips.

"Oh, um, yes of course, uh, won't you, um please, come in," I managed. What the hell was the matter with me? I can't talk, I can't move, shit I can't do anything. Fuck this is my place, why should I be like this? "Come on upstairs. This is kind of the basement." I said closing the door. I stumbled twice on the way up the stairs. "Please won't you have a seat," I said when we got upstairs. "Let me take that bottle and I'll see if I can get it open without breaking anything." There was that bemused smile again.

"You seem to be a little off kilter and out of sync Rob," Becky said smiling. You'd have been a littler off kilter and out of sync too if she'd knocked on your door unexpectedly. My God I didn't even know God made creatures like her. Dan had been right; this woman could raise the cock on a corpse and about anything else I could think of. Hell she'd be enough to confuse the Devil and God would probably have trouble too.

Words like gorgeous, magnificent, stunning don't even begin to describe Rebecca Elizabeth Burns; for lack of a better word she was a Goddess. She was one of those people that could walk into a banquet room or a club full of people or a restaurant and everybody looked. It didn't matter if you were male or female everybody looked. She was my height 6 feet maybe 140 or 145 lbs, blonde wavy hair that tumbled half or three quarters of the way down her back, a peaches and cream complexion that was absolutely perfect without a mole or blemish anywhere, a 36 or 38 chest that was a c or d cup, legs that went from here to there perfectly tapered in the tight Levi's she was wearing, a narrow waist that flared out to full hips, nice full lips, and of course those spectacular midnight blue eyes. If God ever made a perfect female she had to be it.

"Here Becky," I said returning with 2 glasses of Merlot and handing her one. "I've managed to get the bottle open and the glasses full without breaking anything. Here's to a pleasant conversation," I said touching her glass with mine.

"This is very nice. I love your fireplace. You and your late wife built this?" Becky asked.

"Yes several years ago. It was kind of our escape place to hide from the real world. We lived in Southern California and this is where we came for peace, quiet and serenity," I said.

"You're staring again Rob," Becky said.

"Yes, I'm sorry. You must be used to it," I said.

"Yes, but it still makes me uncomfortable. I've never thought of myself as anything special," Becky said. "Do you think I'm special Rob?" Fuck she was as bad as Erin. How the hell do I answer that? I took a sip of my wine stalling while I collected my thoughts.

"Becky, if God ever made a more perfect woman I want to see her," I said. What the hell, I might as well be honest with her.

"That was a very sweet thing to say Rob, thank you," Becky said. There was that bemused smile again.

"Well hell it's true," I said laughing. Our glasses were almost empty and I said, "Let me refill our glasses." While I was refilling our glasses Becky went out onto the deck. I took the glasses out there and handed her one. "It's beautiful isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. I love it up here. The smell of the pine trees, the forest, and the fresh air is like another world from the bay area," Becky said.

"Yes, I know exactly what you mean," I said. We chatted for a while about how gorgeous it was in the Sierra Nevada's. I looked up the street and saw Dan truck coming down the hill and waved. We both waved back. There's a big curve about 200 feet past my cabin and he almost missed it and hit a tree. I could just hear it now, first the daughter now the mother. The tongues would be wagging not that I really cared. I was laughing.

"He almost hit that tree!" Becky exclaimed. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing really," I said still laughing.

"Does he know about you and Erin?" Becky asked.

"Becky, I would venture that just about everybody up here knows about Erin and I by now," I said. I related the cock and corpse story to Becky and then added, "So you see first the daughter and now the mother. By tomorrow or the next day everybody will know you were on my deck." By the time I finished we were both laughing. She had a good sense of humor too. Our glasses were almost empty again.

"Would you like another glass of wine?" I asked praying she'd say yes.

"I thought you emptied the bottle," Becky said.

"I did, but I have another bottle of Merlot in the fridge. I don't like room temperature wine either. It's probably not as good as the bottle you brought but it's potable. Would you like another glass?" I asked.

"Yes, I think I'd like that," Becky said. I went into the kitchen and got out the bottle. My God it was almost 6:30pm. She'd been here over 2 hours and seemed like 10 minutes but of course we were starting our second bottle of wine. If I was going to barbecue I'd have to start soon. I returned to the deck and handed her a glass. "Thank you," She said clinking her glass against mine.

"Becky, I have 2 small filets thawed in the sink, some tater tots and the makings of a salad would you like to join me for dinner?" I said. I was almost holding my breath praying she'd say yes. She turned and looked at me with that bemused smile and there was a twinkle in those spectacular midnight blue eyes.

"I think I'd like that very much, but only if you let me make the salad and do the tater tots," Becky said breaking into a beautiful smile.

"Done," I said breaking into a big grin. "I'll start the briquettes; they'll take about 30 minutes." I had a bag of charcoal sitting just inside the door and poured some into the barbecue. They were Match Light but I still poured a little starter fluid on them before lighting the charcoal. Becky watched me with those eyes of hers.

"Why don't you use gas, it's much cleaner?" she said smiling.

"I prefer the charcoal to barbecue up here. Maybe I'm crazy but personally I think the meat tastes better done over charcoal as opposed to gas. Maybe it's the mountain air I don't know," I said.

"I agree with you. I think it tastes better too. Rob how long are you going to be up here?" Becky asked.

"I'm going back tomorrow. I have an appointment Thursday," I said looking at Becky.

"I better get started on the salad and tater tots," Becky said and went into the kitchen. I watched her go into the cabin. God what a woman. She was graceful and elegant all at the same time. It was hard to imagine her as a slut for anybody. It was even harder to imagine some fool male sharing her around even if he did have a small dick. She was like something out of a dream, something you conjured up in your imagination, a perfect woman. I turned and sipped my glass of wine staring out across the valley at the ridgelines.

"I've got the salad made and the tots are in the oven. They'll be ready in about 15 minutes," Becky's voice was saying breaking me from my thoughts. I turned and looked at her smiling. "Rob can I asked you a question? It's kind of personal."

"Sure, anything," I said.

"What did you do to Erin?" Becky asked. Her voice was very soft and quiet.

"What do you mean what did I do to her?" I asked. I thought I knew what she meant but I wanted her to define it.

"She was different when I got here Sunday. It was Rob this, Rob that, and Rob the other. I've never seen her like that. I guess basically what I want to know is did you sleep with Erin?" Becky asked. I sipped on my wine stalling again. It seemed like I had been doing a lot of that lately trying to collect my thoughts and marshal my words.

"Hang on a minute. Let me get the steaks started and then I'll answer your question," I said stalling for more time. There were clouds gathering and I wondered if it was going to storm tonight and what kind of storm it might be. The temperature was down to 45 degrees. I went inside and got the steaks. "How do you like your steak Becky?" I asked.

"Very rare, Bleu. Do you know what that is?" Becky asked grinning.

"Yes, they won't take very long then. I like mine the same way," I laughed. It seemed that we had a lot in common. Bleu steak, chilled wine, the mountains, the fresh air, and the smell of the forest. I had the steaks on the grill when I turned back to Becky and said, "The answer to your question is yes I slept with Erin. Can we talk about this over dinner; I don't want to ruin the steaks." I had decided there was no use lying about it.

"Oh my God, I forgot the tots," Becky said and rushed off. Good, more time to collect thoughts and marshal words. By the time the steaks were finished Becky had the tots out of the oven and the table set. She had found the dimmer switch to the light and turned it way down putting lit candles on the table. I noticed something else too; the top 2 buttons of her blouse had been buttoned and now they weren't. Hmmmm. I poured the last of the bottle of wine and we sat down to eat. I had a mouthful of salad when Becky asked, "So are you going to tell me why you seduced my daughter?" I choked on the salad when she said it and she had that bemused smile on her face.

"Seduced your daughter? Becky you have it backwards she seduced me," I said when I'd recovered and could talk.

"Why didn't you just say no?" Becky said still with that bemused smile.

"Becky, I don't know if you've noticed or not but I'm a man. When a man has a pretty 19 year old hard body on his deck flashing her bare breasts and shoving her nipples in his mouth he doesn't usually say no," I said laughing and started in on my steak. We ate in silence for a few minutes.

"Rob, I've noticed that you're a man," Becky said with that bemused smile. "I guess part of this is my fault."

"How can it be your fault? You didn't do anything," I said smiling.

"Do you know why she was up here in the first place?" Becky asked smiling now.

"Yea something about breaking up with a boyfriend," I said smiling and shoved another bite of steak in my mouth. I didn't want to elaborate.

"Rob please excuse what I'm going to say, I don't usually talk this way. I had met the guy on a couple of occasions and I didn't like him. He was a selfish, conceited, arrogant son of a bitch. He had the gall, the absolute gall to tell my daughter that she was a lousy cocksucker and a lousy fuck. He told her she was only good to be eye candy at a party. Can you imagine," Becky said. Becky had repeated almost verbatim what Erin had told me.

"Erin told you that?" I asked.

"Yes and she was crying when she told me. I know she doesn't have much experience but the gall of that Bastard infuriated me. I told her she needed to find a man that would appreciate her and knew about women. I guess she found you, so you see that's why it's partly my fault," Becky said smiling. "I got the impression Sunday night and Monday morning that she loves you Rob. I guess the question is do you love her?" Becky asked. I'd finished with dinner and found myself sipping on my half empty glass of wine stalling again and marshaling my thoughts and words. The answer to the question was still yes but how to say it.

"Yes I do Becky. Erin is a fine young lady. She's pretty, she's got a body most men would drool over, she's smart, she's fun to be with, and above all she's well grounded. Erin knows what she's about and she's going to go after it. She has a couple of deep seated problems as a result of her fathers untimely death and I'm going to try and help her with those, but yes Becky I love your daughter," I said. I smiled and sipped my wine waiting.

"Are you in love with Erin?" Becky asked. I took the last sip of wine.

"That's a different question all together," I said. "Loving someone and being in love with someone are 2 very different things. If I had to answer that now I'd say I don't think so but the honest answer is I really don't know." There was a flash of light and a few seconds later we could hear the far off thunder rolling threw the dark sky.

"You're a very insightful man Robert Jacobs," Becky said smiling. "We better clean this up before we have coffee."

"Yes. I need to clean the grill and get a fire started in the fireplace," I said smiling back. 45 minutes later the kitchen was clean, the grill was clean and I had a nice fire going in the fireplace. The lights were dim again and we were sitting in the recliners sipping Baileys and coffee. Becky was sitting the recliner my late wife used to sit in.

"I just love a real fireplace," Becky said. "It's fascinating to watch the flames dance on the wood with the pops and crackles. It's like a mini fireworks show when they pop and throw off sparks."

"I know what you mean; that's why we had a real one built here," I said. Another thing we shared. A coincidence, they were beginning to pile up. The thunder and lightening were getting closer. I was staring into the fire taking a sip of coffee when a particularly loud clap of thunder rattled the windows.