Chapter 18

After packing, I took Katy with me to pick up a nine-passenger van at the rental place. I had to drive all the way to the airport in the next city to get it. It was large but with five women packing for two-weeks, I would be lucky if we weren't all sitting on luggage on the way up. We arrived home around nine and the house was quiet. I looked around and found the group in my bedroom. Lucy, Debbie, Natty, Suzie and even Jimmy were laid out across the foot of my bed watching an old movie on TV. It was the Hitchcock horror classic Psycho. I couldn't believe they were so wrapped up in the film but I sat down on my changing chair and watched along with them. Katy started to get on the bed until she saw where I was sitting. She decided to sit in my lap instead.

I have seen the movie so many times that I only half watched it. It was much more fun watching Suzie, Debbie, Natty and Jimmy watch the movie. You can tell when someone watches a movie like Psycho for the first time. There are certain scenes, like the shower scene, that are scary no matter how many times you watch them, but there are others that aren't nearly as scary the second or third time you watch. Lucy was almost sitting up against the pillows while the four young people were lying on their stomachs with their heads at the foot of the bed. Every time the characters would come to a tension point the four across the foot of the bed would try to scoot even closer together.

Natty was particularly funny as she would hide her face in her arms during especially scary scenes and then end up looking up before the scene was over. Hitchcock was the master at drawing out suspense and Psycho was his masterpiece in that regard. During the movie Katy decided to get more comfortable at my expense. My changing chair is a small wooden ladder backed chair. That meant that I was sitting in the chair and Katy was draped across my body. At first she was just sitting on my lap with her feet on the floor but evidently that was no fun so she kicked off her shoes and turned sideways and put her arms around my neck and lay back against me. Then she started squirming which rubbed her braless breast against my chest. Her nipple quickly got hard and after a few passes my dick responded in sympathy.

During all of this I was trying to watch the first time watchers who were very attentively watching the movie. I happened to glance up towards Lucy to see if she was also watching the watchers and found that instead she had her eyes fixed on Katy and me. We made eye contact and she seemed to ask me a question with the arching of her brows. Then it dawned on me that she had no idea up to that point that Katy was my lover. I start thinking that I would need to have a talk with her and started running through the possibilities of that conversation in my mind.

About the time I figured that Katy was only interested in making the hard lump in my pants even harder, she kissed my neck, jumped off of my lap, opened the dresser drawer and grabbed her night clothes and headed into the master bath. Next thing I heard was water running in the bath tub, not the shower but the bath tub. That started me thinking about Katy's bubble baths and how sexy she could be when she bathed. A moment later I woke up from the daydream where Katy was lying naked in the tub with bubbles swirling up around her engorged nipples and glanced back over towards Lucy who was looking towards the still open dresser drawer with raised eyebrows again.

I gave Lucy a smile and tried to return my attention to the movie. Again my mind drifted towards Katy as I heard her splashing in the tub and my damn hard-on grew even harder. I felt like a teenage boy as I squirmed in my chair trying to get the lump in my pants accommodated. That started me thinking about whether others could see my predicament and I looked over at the movie watchers who seemed to have no idea I was even in the room. I moved my eyes over to Lucy who had a knowing smile on her lips as I found her eyes locked on me, not the movie. I sighed, thinking that this might be a long couple of weeks.

About that time the movie stopped for the only commercial break, which meant the watchers took a break. Most rushed into the kitchen for snacks but poor Natty was frantically rattling the knob of the master bathroom trying to get inside. After she heard Katy's muffled voice say, "I'm in the tub," Natty suddenly headed towards the other bathroom at the opposite end of the house. That left Lucy and I suddenly alone in the room and I felt some of the fear that Marion felt in the movie as Lucy quizzed me by raising her eyebrows for the third time. I tried to act laid-back and nonchalant but suddenly the master inquisitor was in the hot seat. Lucy's eyes were asking questions that I knew I'd have to eventually answer. At least her questioning look was enough to take my mind off of other things which took the extra crease out of my pants. I finally decided to get things out in the open.

I began weakly by asking, "How many times have you watched this?"

Lucy lifted her eyebrows again as if asking whether I meant the movie or myself and Katy.

I added, "I meant the movie."

Lucy laughed and gave me a look that seemed to say that she was sure that wasn't what I really wanted to ask but said, "Oh, more than ten but less than twenty."

Then she moved to the foot of the bed and lay down on her stomach fixing me with her stare. From that closer position she went straight for the jugular as she remarked, "I see Katy was marking her territory. How long have you two been sleeping together?"

There was no use denying something I had planned on telling her anyway. The phrasing of her question did put me on the defensive, making me feel that some explanation was in order. Although I know the best defense is a good offense, I didn't want to alienate Lucy which made me search for the proper choice of words. That hesitation on my part gave Lucy pause and after a moment she said, "I wasn't trying to pry ... it's really none of my business but I felt that since we were going to be together for the next couple of weeks it might help to know the pecking order."

I smiled at her words. I really wanted to come clean with Lucy about all of us but didn't feel that I knew her well enough at the moment. I simply said, "Katy is very special to me and I love her very much. I know there's quite a difference in our ages which might raise some eyebrows in the community but Katy's very mature and there is no way I would or could take advantage of her. Our arrangements are her choice as well as mine. I don't try to hide that from those close to us. Debbie has known since the second night she slept here."

Lucy thought for a moment and then said, "It was obvious from watching you squirm during the movie that you weren't taking advantage of Katy. I'm sure that whatever your arrangement, the decision was mutual."

She then raised those eyebrows again and asked, "Is there anything else that I need to know before we all go traipsing off together for several weeks?"

I again thought about telling her everything, but felt I had to get to know her better before making any further confessions. Again my hesitation gave Lucy the chance to clarify, "I didn't mean for that to sound the way it did. I just thought that if there was anything else that you wanted to tell me, it might be better while we are alone."

I decided to go a bit further and said, "There are some other things that I want to tell you but I don't know you well enough at the moment to judge how you might react. You'll just have to trust me for a while."

Lucy looked surprised as she exclaimed, "Trust you? You've done so much for us already that I don't think I could ever not trust you. You saved me and my family from both death and a fate some would consider worse than death. To be completely honest Jeff, I ended up a little bit enamored by you and a little bit envious of Katy..."

About that moment Katy, who had obviously been listening at the door stepped out of the bathroom dressed in her nightgown and robe and remarked, "I'm not jealous of you, why would you be jealous of me?"

A bit startled by Katy's appearance Lucy answered, "Katy, think about it. Why would you be jealous of me? You're young, beautiful and smart; all things that I'm not. I'm just a woman struggling to get by whose just discovered that I can't even take care of myself, much less my family. Look at what I did. I was so messed up that I let myself be seduced by a drug dealer."

Lucy was calm, despite the passion of her statement to Katy. Katy was stunned by the remarks of the older woman. I decided that we needed to talk this out and simply said, "Lucy, that's just not true. The kids will be back in a minute and we need to discuss some things that it may be better for them not to hear. Let's talk about this in my office."

I stood and helped Lucy up from the bed. Natty was coming in the door just the rest of us were leaving. She asked, "Where're you all going? Is the movie over?"

I hugged her to me and said, "We're going in my office to talk so we won't interrupt the movie for you guys. The movie is still in commercial but we've seen it before anyway. Y'all keep watching it while we talk, okay? After it's over everyone needs to get in bed because we're leaving early in the morning."

Natty looked puzzled but nodded her understanding before crawling back to her spot at the foot of the bed. We passed the others in the hall but they were talking with each other and brushed by us without giving us another glance.

In my office we all sat on the couch with Lucy in the center. The break had come at an awkward moment and it seemed for a moment as if everyone was waiting for someone else to say something. Lucy had stated her feelings and I knew it was almost impossible to convince someone that their feelings were wrong. What she had said really caught me by surprise. After all of our conversations in the hospital, I felt that she had progressed to a point that had put self-destructive thinking in the past.